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A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X). This special issue belongs to the section "Soil-Sediment-Water Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 26 May 2024 | Viewed by 8398

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Wanek

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Guest Editor

Center of Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science, University of Vienna, 1030 Vienna, Austria
Interests: terrestrial ecosystem ecology; role of plants and soil microbes and their interaction in controlling ecosystem processes; stable isotope fractionation; soil C-N-P cycling and stoichiometry; global change effects on plant-soil-microbe relations

Dr. Mohammad Zaman

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Guest Editor

Soil and Water Management & Crop Nutrition Section, Joint FAO/IAEA Division, International Atomic Energy Agency, 1400 Vienna, Austria
Interests: nitrous oxide; soil; nitrogen; nitrification

Dr. Lifei Sun

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Guest Editor

CAS Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China
Interests: soil carbon and nitrogen cycling; global climate change

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Soils are degraded due to mismanagement, overexploitation, climate change, and pollution. Therefore, with “Soils for the Future” we need to protect and sustainably use soil resources under current conditions and for future upcoming scenarios. It is vital to preserve soil fertility, protect the soils from deterioration, and increase soil productivity and soil organic matter storage. This is also linked to growing demands for food, water, and energy, calling for a global effort to address the challenges of climate change and land degradation, whilst protecting soil as a natural resource.

The Special Issue “Soils for the Future” aims to bring together the status quo, novel approaches and key papers on how to manage soils in forests, grasslands, and croplands for them to function properly in future climates and under future environmental challenges. This includes soil organic matter accretion and nutrient and water retention, soil multifunctionality and soil health, and important interactions between abiotic and biological soil compartments, among others. This ties nicely into the Journal scope, which includes land system science, soil–water systems, land–climate interactions, the water-energy-land-food (WELF) nexus, and biodiversity, ecosystem services, multifunctionality, and sustainability.

Sustainable land management to improve soils, promote their health and to achieve more carbon-rich soils;
Advances in the understanding of the (de)coupling of C, N, P, and S cycling in forestry and agriculture;
Advanced approaches and technologies for studying soil microbial processes (including, but not limited to, microbial metabolic efficiency, microbial-driven elemental cycling and transformation, and interactions between plants and soil microbes);
Roles of soil-microbe-plant interaction in regulating ecosystem multifunction.

Research papers and reviews covering the above themes are welcome.

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Wanek
Dr. Mohammad Zaman
Dr. Lifei Sun
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Land is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

soil health and multifunctionality
role of soils in climate change mitigation
sustainable management of soil resources
forests, grasslands, and croplands
atmosphere-plant-soil-microbe interactions
soil ecosystem functions and processes

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

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21 pages, 7558 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Estimating the Soil Copper Content of Urban Land in a Megacity Using Piecewise Spectral Pretreatment

by Yi Liu, Tiezhu Shi, Zeying Lan, Kai Guo, Dachang Zhuang, Xiangyang Zhang, Xiaojin Liang, Tianqi Qiu, Shengfei Zhang and Yiyun Chen

Land 2024, 13(4), 517; https://doi.org/10.3390/land13040517 - 14 Apr 2024

Viewed by 400

Abstract

Heavy mental contamination in urban land is a serious environmental issue for large cities. Visible and near-infrared spectroscopy has been rapidly developed as a new method for estimating copper (Cu) levels, which is one of the heavy metals. Spectral pretreatment is essential for reducing noise and enhancing analysis. In the traditional method, the entire spectrum is uniformly pretreated. However, in reality, the influence of pretreatment on the spectrum may vary depending on the wavelengths. Limited research has been conducted on breaking down the entire spectrum into distinct parts for individualized pretreatment, an innovative method called piecewise pretreatment. This study gathered 250 topsoil samples (0–20 cm) in Shenzhen City, southwest China, and obtained their vis-NIR spectra (350–2500 nm) in the laboratory. This study divided the spectrum into three parts, each processed by six commonly used spectral pretreatments. The number of pretreated parts varied from 1 to 3, resulting in 342 PLSR models being built. Compared to the traditional method, piecewise pretreatment showed an increase in mean residual predictive deviation (RPD) from 1.55 to 1.71 and an increase in the percentage of positive outcomes in ∆RPD from 33.33% to 55.56%. Thus, we concluded that piecewise pretreatment generally outperforms the traditional method. Furthermore, piecewise pretreatment aims to choose the most effective pretreatment method for each part to optimize the Cu estimation model. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soils for the Future)

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25 pages, 4304 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Predicting Soil Properties for Agricultural Land in the Caucasus Mountains Using Mid-Infrared Spectroscopy

by Elton Mammadov, Michael Denk, Amrakh I. Mamedov and Cornelia Glaesser

Land 2024, 13(2), 154; https://doi.org/10.3390/land13020154 - 29 Jan 2024

Viewed by 848

Abstract

Visible-near infrared (Vis-NIR) and mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy are increasingly being used for the fast determination of soil properties. The aim of this study was (i) to test the use of MIR spectra (Agilent 4300 FTIR Handheld spectrometer) for the prediction of soil properties and (ii) to compare the prediction performances of MIR spectra and Vis-NIR (ASD FieldSpecPro) spectra; the Vis-NIR data were adopted from a previous study. Both the MIR and Vis-NIR spectra were coupled with partial least squares regression, different pre-processing techniques, and the same 114 soil samples, collected from the agricultural land located between boreal forests and semi-arid steppe belts (Kastanozems). The prediction accuracy (R² = 0.70–0.99) of both techniques was similar for most of the soil properties assessed. However, (i) the MIR spectra were superior for estimating CaCO₃, pH, SOC, sand, Ca, Mg, Cd, Fe, Mn, and Pb. (ii) The Vis-NIR spectra provided better results for silt, clay, and K, and (iii) the hygroscopic water content, Cu, P, and Zn were poorly predicted by both methods. The importance of the applied pre-processing techniques was evident, and among others, the first derivative spectra produced more reliable predictions for 11 of the 17 soil properties analyzed. The spectrally active CaCO₃ had a dominant contribution in the MIR predictions of spectrally inactive soil properties, followed by SOC and Fe, whereas particle sizes and hygroscopic water content appeared as confounding factors. The estimation of spectrally inactive soil properties was carried out by considering their secondary correlation with carbonates, clay minerals, and organic matter. The soil information covered by the MIR spectra was more meaningful than that covered by the Vis-NIR spectra, while both displayed similar capturing mechanisms. Both the MIR and Vis-NIR spectra seized the same soil information, which may appear as a limiting factor for combining both spectral ranges. The interpretation of MIR spectra allowed us to differentiate non-carbonated and carbonated samples corresponding to carbonate leaching and accumulation zones associated with topography and land use. The prediction capability of the MIR spectra and the content of nutrient elements was highly related to soil-forming factors in the study area, which highlights the importance of local (site-specific) prediction models. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soils for the Future)

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20 pages, 5061 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Improving the Chemical Properties of Acid Sulphate Soils from the Casamance River Basin

by Inmaculada Bautista, Joana Oliver, Antonio Lidón, Jose María Osca and Neus Sanjuán

Land 2023, 12(9), 1693; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12091693 - 29 Aug 2023

Viewed by 706

Abstract

The anoxic conditions produced after the reflooding of acid sulphate soil (ASS) can reduce sulphate and/or Fe(III) with a consequent rise in pH. This study aimed to compare the effect of different amendments on ASS remediation and to analyse the effect on soil pH and exchangeable aluminium. Two mid-term incubation experiments were carried out to analyse the effect of amendments and water management on ASS. Soil samples were taken in the Santak Valley from four agricultural plots. During the first experiment, each soil sample was subject to two water management systems (flooded and non-flooded) and three amendment types (rice straw, manure, and lime). During the second experiment, the flooded condition was performed with three organic amendments (rice straw, manure, and biochar). In the first experiment, the amendments with organic matter (rice straw, and manure) increased the pH more under the flooded conditions, and manure was effective in reducing exchangeable aluminium (Al_ex) to 45% in the control soil. In the second experiment, all the organic amendments reduced soluble Al, but whereas straw increased soluble Fe, biochar diminished it. The amendment addition increased the soil pH and reduced Al_ex. The Al_ex reduction was greater for the stabler organic amendments: manure and biochar. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soils for the Future)

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11 pages, 1093 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Biochar Aged for Five Years Altered Carbon Fractions and Enzyme Activities of Sandy Soil

by Yuxin Zhang, Wenqi Ma, Xia Sun, Jingbailun Jiang, Dianpeng Li, Guangmu Tang, Wanli Xu and Hongtao Jia

Land 2023, 12(8), 1645; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12081645 - 21 Aug 2023

Viewed by 1102

Abstract

Biochar applied to soil has been considered as an effective tool for mitigation of atmospheric carbon dioxide emission and enhancement of carbon storage in soil, which may also enhance soil quality. However, the effect of biochar aged for 5 years on the different carbon fractions and enzyme activities as well as its changes, is not well understood in the cropland sandy soil of northern China. Therefore, a field trial was carried out in 2014 with biochar applied once at 0, 5.25, 10.50, 21.00 and 42.00 g·kg⁻¹ (BC0, BC1, BC2, BC3, and BC4, respectively). We evaluated the influence of biochar addition to the changes in soil organic carbon (SOC), labile carbon pools (readily oxidized carbon, dissolved organic carbon, and microbial biomass carbon) and enzyme activities (invertase, urease, and catalase). Biochar significantly increased SOC (122.00%) and altered the content of labile carbon (increased ROC, DOC and MBC by 71.29%, 10.35%, and 900.00%, respectively). Soil urease and invertase activities increased by 55.81% and 46.76%, respectively, with an increase in biochar application rate, but catalase activity significantly decreased by 31.79%. The values of the geometric means of labile carbon (0.88) and enzyme activities (2.39) for the BC3 treatment were higher than others, which indicated that the biochar application rate of 21.00 g·kg⁻¹ is suggested for the sandy soil. Our results suggest that the application of biochar in sandy soil for five years increased soil carbon sequestration, changed enzyme activities and ameliorated soil quality. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soils for the Future)

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17 pages, 3389 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Interactive Effects Determine Radiocarbon Abundance in Soil Fractions of Global Biomes

by Guoai Li, Xuxu Chai, Zheng Shi and Honghua Ruan

Land 2023, 12(5), 1072; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12051072 - 16 May 2023

Viewed by 904

Abstract

Soil organic carbon (SOC) is heterogeneous, consisting of fractions with differing turnover rates. Climate, vegetation, and soil properties can all affect the characteristics of these different soil carbon fractions. However, there has been little investigation into the interactive effects of biotic and abiotic drivers on a large spatial scale. In this study, we utilized data from the international soil radiocarbon database (ISRaD) to investigate the radiocarbon abundance (an indicator of carbon persistence) in soil fractions from several different biomes. Bulk SOC was categorized into three fractions according to the density fractionation method: a free light fraction (fLF), an occluded light fraction (oLF) and a heavy fraction (HF). In addition to the impacts of significant factors such as depth and climate, interactive effects between soil fractions and environmental factors on radiocarbon abundance were prevalent. Specifically, there were significant interactions between climate, vegetation types, soil properties, and soil fractions affecting Δ¹⁴C levels. The difference in Δ¹⁴C of the shallow depth fractions was significant in the temperate forest, and was not significant in the boreal and tropical forests. The interactive effect between mean annual temperature (MAT) and mean annual precipitation (MAP) on Δ¹⁴C was significant in the shallower depth (i.e., 0–30 cm and 30–60 cm) of the oLF and in the deeper soils (i.e., 30–60 cm and 60–100 cm) of the HF. Soil properties also interact with soil fractions in determining Δ¹⁴C. After accounting for depth effect, oxalate-extractable aluminum (Alo) accounted for 63.5% of the remaining Δ¹⁴C variation in the fLF and accounted for 35.9% of the remaining Δ¹⁴C variation in the oLF. Rather than Alo, cation exchange capacity (CEC) accounted for 46.1% of the remaining Δ¹⁴C variation in the HF. These findings suggest that the way the interactions between climate, vegetation, and soil properties affect soil carbon persistence at various fractional depths is critical for the accurate prediction of soil carbon dynamics. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soils for the Future)

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14 pages, 971 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Developing Management Practices in: “Living Labs” That Result in Healthy Soils for the Future, Contributing to Sustainable Development

by J. Bouma and C. P. Veerman

Land 2022, 11(12), 2178; https://doi.org/10.3390/land11122178 - 01 Dec 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1912

Abstract

There is general agreement on the need for sustainable development, but the concept has remained rather vague until seventeen specific goals (SDGs) were approved by the UN Assembly in 2015, including targets and indicators. The EU followed this example by introducing their Green Deal in 2019. Soils play a very important role in realizing these goals by the intended year of 2030 in terms of (amongst other less directly related goals) contributing to food production (SDG2: “zero hunger”), good health and wellbeing (SDG3), water quality (SDG6: “clean water and sanitation”), sustainable production (SDG12: ”sustainable consumption and production”), carbon capture and greenhouse gas emission (SDG13: “climate action”) and soil health and biodiversity preservation (SDG15: “life on land”). Of course, not only soils but many other scientific disciplines contribute to achieving the SDGs, and the EU Mission Board for Soil Health and Food has, therefore, defined soil health in terms of specific soil contributions to interdisciplinary ecosystem services: “soils supporting ecosystem services in line with the SDGs and the Green Deal”. Restricting attention in this paper to soils, the Board has defined six indicators for soil health that allow an integrated assessment of the role of soils, reported in this paper in a slightly modified version: presence of soil pollutants, organic matter content, structure, biodiversity, nutrient content and water regimes. Currently, different indicator systems are being used while soil research is rather fragmented, as future environmental policies are still being discussed. The research and policy arenas face major challenges at this point in time to rise to the occasion by defining clear operational assessment procedures for soil health that will, above all, be accepted and internalized by land users, of which farmers manage the largest land area. Only then can implementation be realized in practice. An effort is needed to test the vast body of existing techniques and expertise and focus new research on gaps that appear. This is discussed in detail for the six indicators distinguished, and particular attention is paid to defining threshold values, separating the “good” from the “not yet good enough”. New ways have to be explored to achieve real and productive interactions between scientists and stakeholders, including farmers. The establishment of Living Labs aimed at realizing successful Lighthouses is, therefore, seen as an effective way for scientists to work with farmers in developing innovative management schemes, including the role of soils, expressed in terms of indicators and thresholds for soil health. Such procedures should be the basis for future rules and regulations, where a “one-out, all-out” principle can be used for the various indicators to avoid the current complex discussions about deriving a single, overall soil health indicator. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soils for the Future)

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Review

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19 pages, 1445 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperReview

How Can Plants Help Restore Degraded Tropical Soils?

by Renaud Massoukou Pamba, Vincent Poirier, Pamphile Nguema Ndoutoumou and Terence Epule Epule

Land 2023, 12(12), 2147; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12122147 - 09 Dec 2023

Viewed by 1417

Abstract

In the tropics, anthropogenic activities can lead to water and wind erosion, a loss of biodiversity, and a reduction in sequestered carbon, fertility, and organic matter content in the soils concerned, potentially resulting in their degradation. This study therefore aims to identify the mechanisms used by plant species to restore degraded tropical soils and plant species characteristics that are best suited to achieve this through a critical scoping review of the peer-reviewed literature. Soil restoration leads to the re-establishment of ecosystem services and an increase in soil production potential, the regeneration of biodiversity, the stopping of organic matter losses, and the creation of favorable conditions for carbon sequestration and nitrogen fixation. The choice of appropriate plant species depends on the restoration objectives to be achieved. Five key mechanisms by which plant species contribute to restore degraded tropical soils include: (1) nitrogen fixation, (2) carbon sequestration, (3) organic matter addition, (4) structure stabilization, and (5) erosion control. The main characteristics of plant species and vegetation involved in these mechanisms are (a) the capacity to form symbiotic associations with N-fixing bacteria and mycorrhizae, (b) the production of abundant root biomass releasing litter and exudates, (c) roots having a high length density, branching intensity, and depth distribution, (d) the production of an abundant and easily decomposed above ground litter, (e) the production of a vast canopy, and (f) the presence of different vegetation strata. Targeting these characteristics will contribute to acting on several mechanisms simultaneously, which will increase the chance of success in tropical soil restoration. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soils for the Future)

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