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Land
Special Issues
Promoting Soil Health for Sustainable Agricultural and Bioenergy Production
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Promoting Soil Health for Sustainable Agricultural and Bioenergy Production

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (23 February 2024) | Viewed by 2791

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Tida Ge

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
State Key Laboratory for Managing Biotic and Chemical Threats to the Quality and Safety of Agro-products, Institute of Plant Virology, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China
Interests: land use; soil biogeochemistry; soil C and N dynamics; C sequestration; soil-plant-microorganism interactions; microbial C use strategies; stable and radioactive isotope; priming effects; paddy soils
Dr. Xiufen Li

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, USA
Interests: soil microbiome; soil-plant-microbe interactions; soil health; nutrient cycling and availability; plant growth and productivity; greenhouse gas emission; organic farming; functional gene abundance and expression
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Food shortage, energy insecurity, soil degradation, and soil pollution are pressing challenges facing humanity. Healthy soil is the foundation of productive and sustainable agricultural and bioenergy production to meet the ever-increasing demand for food and fuel. However, soil health is declining at an alarming rate due to climate change, land-use change, intensive agriculture, soil erosion, soil salinization and sodification, soil sealing and ponding, soil organic carbon loss, soil biodiversity loss, and soil pollution.

To advance food and fuel security, we need to better understand soil health under various cropping systems and management practices as well as the changing climate. We need to enhance our knowledge of the interactions of soils with microbes, plants, livestock, and the environment. We need to explore effective, low-cost, and environmentally friendly approaches to restore degraded soil, remediate polluted soil, and regenerate healthy soil. We need to develop decision models to comprehensively assess soil health using physical, chemical, and biological indicators. We need to provide scientific knowledge for policymakers, stakeholders, crop advisors, and producers to make improved decisions on adopting sustainable soil-management practices.

The goal of this Special Issue is to collect original research articles, review papers, and short communications to give insights into better monitoring and promoting soil health for sustainable agricultural and bioenergy production. Topics include but are not limited to: 1) Identifying the optimum fertilization practices, cropping systems, and agronomic strategies for improving soil health and productivity under desired or stressed conditions; 2) Uncovering the metabolic and genomic mechanisms of beneficial plant-microbe interactions and integrated crop-livestock systems in improving soil health and productivity; 3) Application of new GIS and remote sensing technologies to better monitor and access soil health; 4) Developing novel agricultural strategies to effectively control soil-borne diseases, remediate toxic soil pollutions, and manage salinization and sodification; 5) Developing comprehensive models to assess soil health and quality of various complex soil systems.

Prof. Dr. Tida Ge
Dr. Xiufen Li
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
  • soil quality
  • agroecosystems
  • cropping systems
  • management practices
  • soil degradation
  • soil restoration
  • soil pollution
  • bioremediation
  • microbial diversity

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 2500 KiB  
Article
Distribution and Speciation of Trace Elements in Soils of Four Land-Use Systems
by Farid Ul Haque, Faridullah Faridullah, Muhammad Irshad, Aziz-Ur-Rahim Bacha, Zahid Ullah, Muhammad Fawad, Farhan Hafeez, Akhtar Iqbal, Rashid Nazir, Abdulwahed Fahad Alrefaei and Mikhlid H. Almutairi
Land 2023, 12(10), 1894; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12101894 - 9 Oct 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1064
Abstract
Land use has a greater impact on trace element (TE) concentration present in soils. In mountainous regions of the western Himalayas, some dominating geogenic and human-dependent anthropogenic factors are involved in the spatial distribution of TEs in various land uses. Soil samples were [...] Read more.
Land use has a greater impact on trace element (TE) concentration present in soils. In mountainous regions of the western Himalayas, some dominating geogenic and human-dependent anthropogenic factors are involved in the spatial distribution of TEs in various land uses. Soil samples were collected from permafrost, pasture, forest, and agricultural land-use systems of Babusar Valley and Fairy Meadows in Diamer districts and the Rama region in Astore Districts in replications for investigation of three TEs, i.e., copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), and nickel (Ni). These samples were analyzed for exchangeable, adsorbed, organically bound, carbonate precipitated, and residual forms. Significant differences among these TEs were observed. Differences in the levels of TEs within soil samples were observed to be influenced by land usage patterns. The physicochemical properties of soil samples were also investigated. Additionally, the total metals (Ni, Zn, Cu) were extracted and their concentrations were measured in all samples. The concentration of soil TEs was observed in the following order: adsorbed < organically bound < exchangeable < residual < carbonate precipitated form across all the land uses. The results indicate that the contents of TEs (Ni, Zn, Cu) in agricultural soils were greater than in the permafrost pasture and forest soil samples. The total TE concentration varied as Zn > Ni > Cu irrespective of the area and land uses. We believe this work will open avenues for researchers to explore TEs in various regions of the world. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Promoting Soil Health for Sustainable Agricultural and Bioenergy Production)
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18 pages, 2458 KiB  
Article
Rotational Grazing Strategies Minimally Impact Soil Microbial Communities and Carbon Dynamics—A Texas Case Study
by Jennifer M. Moore, Daniel K. Manter and Kristie A. Maczko
Land 2023, 12(8), 1517; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12081517 - 30 Jul 2023
Viewed by 1362
Abstract
The goal of our study was to evaluate the long-term (>12 years) influence of stocking density and herd rotation frequency on plant and soil microbial community and carbon dynamics in three working ranches in Texas. One ranch utilized a high stocking density and [...] Read more.
The goal of our study was to evaluate the long-term (>12 years) influence of stocking density and herd rotation frequency on plant and soil microbial community and carbon dynamics in three working ranches in Texas. One ranch utilized a high stocking density and high-frequency (HIGH) rotation where cattle were moved multiple times each day; the second ranch used a medium stocking density and rotation frequency (MED) where herds were moved every 2–3 weeks; and the third ranch used a low stocking density with continuous grazing (LOW). Neither plant nor microbial diversity measures differed between the ranches, but plant functional and microbial community compositions differentiated management strategies. The MED ranch was characterized by a plant community dominated by little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) and had the greatest soil organic matter content (2.8%) and soil respiration rates compared to the LOW (SOM = 2.2%) and HIGH (SOM = 2.1%) ranches. The HIGH ranch had a relatively high abundance and diversity of forbs and introduced grasses, and the LOW ranch had an even mixture of tall, introduced, and cool-season grasses. All three ranches had relatively high levels of Gram-positive bacteria (>70%) with MED having a higher relative abundance of bacteria important for carbon cycling. Furthermore, network analyses suggest that soil microbial communities at all ranches were highly synergistic and exhibited well-defined ecological niches. Differences in soil properties between ranches tended to be minor and suggest that grazing strategies can differ without any substantial shifts in soil and microbial function. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Promoting Soil Health for Sustainable Agricultural and Bioenergy Production)
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