Associate Professor of the Faculty of Geography and Geoinformation Technologies Alexander Sheludkov and the leading researcher of the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences Raisa Gracheva took part in the 1st International Joint Congress of the European Society for the Conservation of Soil (ESSC) and the European Society of Ecological Cycles (EURECYS) (November 10-14, Italy). The aim of the congress is to create a wide European network of interdisciplinary research on the interaction of man and nature.