Soils are crucial for life. They provide the growth medium for plants, a reservoir of water storage, a filtration system for removing pathogens and chemical contaminants from entrained and transported water, and they regulate global elemental cycles, impacting climate and nutrient availability. Soils are an intricate and complex assemblage of mineral, organic matter, water, air, and organisms that develop through the combined processes of additions (such as organic matter and dust), losses (e.g., erosion or solute leaching), internal transformations (e.g., mineral weathering and organic matter decomposition), and translocations (e.g., downward migration of clay particles and organic carbon). Processes operating within soils are inextricably an integration of physics, chemistry, and biology.
The journal Soils is devoted to providing a vehicle for studies that examine and unravel the complexity of soils, including processes contributing to their development or loss, to plant growth and water quality, and to their contribution to global elemental cycling. We seek studies that embrace the integrated processes operating within the most complex materials on Earth and their broader ecosystem impacts.
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