Soil health is the capacity of the soil to provide an environment for optimum growth and development of plants, while also ensuring the health of animals and humans. Animal manure has been used for centuries as a source of nutrients in agriculture. H...
In view of recent reports of critical declines of microbes, plants, insects and other invertebrates, birds and other vertebrates, the situation pertaining to neglected earthworms was investigated. Entomological reports found the probable cause of gen...
Soil health is a term used to describe the general state or quality of soil, and in an agroecosystem, soil health can be defined as the ability of the soil to respond to agricultural practices in a way that sustainably supports both agricultural prod...
Deep soil tillage and proper rootstock selection mitigate the root development limitations in Ultisol’s Bt horizon, enhancing the citrus yield potential. This study evaluates the root spatial distribution of three Ponkan tangerine rootstocks in...
This review highlights the potential of vermicompost and its derived products as sustainable and eco-friendly solutions for enhancing production and pest management in grain crops. It assesses their impact comprehensively on crops such as maize, whea...
Land degradation, particularly soil erosion, is currently a major challenge for Nepal. With a high rate of population growth, subsistence-based rural economy, and increasingly intense rainfall events in the monsoon season, Nepal is prone to several f...
Earth’s land surface is raised from conventionally flat 15 Gha to >64 Gha accounting for hilly slope undulation and topsoil relief detail. Three main aspects are: topography, rugosity/tortuosity, and micro-relief/porosity of ice/vegetation-f...
This review article aims to acknowledge the multifaceted functions of soil, and given its status as the largest terrestrial carbon store, to reaffirm its previously established importance in carbon sequestration. The article outlines the key variable...
The aim of the paper is to give an overview on the chemistry of soil organic carbon (SOC) affecting nutrient availability, the emission of greenhouse gases and detoxifying harmful substances in soil. Humic substances represent the stable part of SOC,...
In the past decade soil health has been intensively studied as a science and practiced as a means to help improve the global social, environmental, and economic sustainability. This paper reviews the recent advances of the scientific soil health syst...
Sorption of chemicals onto soil particle surfaces is an important process controlling their availability for uptake by organisms and loss from soils to ground and surface waters. The mechanisms of chemical sorption are inner- and outer-sphere adsorpt...
Intensive agriculture causes land degradation and other environmental problems, such as pollution, soil erosion, fertility loss, biodiversity decline, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which exacerbate climate change. Sustainable agricultural pract...
Phosphite (Phi)-containing products are marketed for their antifungal and nutritional value. Substantial evidence of the anti-fungal properties of Phi on a wide variety of plants has been documented. Although Phi is readily absorbed by plant leaves a...
Heavy metal(loid)s and organic contaminants are two major groups of pollutants in soils. The fate and exposure of such pollutants in soil depends on their chemical properties, speciation, and soil properties. Soil properties and processes that contro...
Most of our terrestrial carbon (C) storage occurs in soils as organic C derived from living organisms. Therefore, the fate of soil organic C (SOC) in response to changes in climate, land use, and management is of great concern. Here we provide a unif...
Perchlorate (ClO4−) is globally enriched in Martian regolith at levels commonly toxic to plants. Consequently, perchlorate in Martian regolith presents an obstacle to developing agriculture on Mars. Here, we assess the effect of perchlorate at differ...
Reclamation of salt-affected soil has been identified by the FAO as being critical to meet the needs to increase agricultural productivity. This paper reviews commonly used reclamation methods for salt-affected soils, and provides critical identifier...
Soil salinity is a serious problem facing many countries globally, especially those with semi-arid and arid climates. Soil salinity can have negative influences on soil microbial activity as well as many chemical and physical soil processes, all of w...
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the global food supply chain and exacerbated the problem of food and nutritional insecurity. Here we outline soil strategies to strengthen local food production systems, enhance their resilience, and create a circu...
Unscientific land use and cropping techniques have led high soil erosion and degradation of soil quality in the mid-hills of Nepal. To understand the effects of land use systems for selected soil chemical properties in mid-hills, composite soil sampl...
The study of soil viruses, though not new, has languished relative to the study of marine viruses. This is particularly due to challenges associated with separating virions from harboring soils. Generally, three approaches to analyzing soil viruses h...
Soils are biodiversity-dense and constantly carry chemical flows of information, with our mental image of soil being dark and quiet. But what if soil biota tap sound, or more generally, vibrations as a source of information? Vibrations are produced b...
Per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) are an environmentally persistent group of chemicals that can pose an imminent threat to human health through groundwater and surface water contamination. In this review, we evaluate the subsurface beh...
The continuous cropping (CC) of major agricultural, horticultural, and industrial crops is an established practice worldwide, though it has significant soil health-related concerns. However, a combined review of the effects of CC on soil health indic...
Phytomining (PM) is defined as the process of using plants capable of bio-extracting metals from soil in order to explore them economically. This relatively new, innovative method has been gathering significant attention in both the academic and comm...
Currently, increasing anthropogenic pressure and overexploitation expose soils to various forms of degradation, including contamination, erosion, and sealing. Soil contamination, primarily caused by industrial processes, agricultural practices (such...
It has become common practice in soil applications of biochar to use ground and/or sieved material to reduce particle size and so enhance mixing and surface contact between soils and char particles. Smaller particle sizes of biochars have been sugges...
Irrigation practices can greatly influence greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions because of their control on soil microbial activity and substrate supply. However, the effects of different irrigation management practices, such as flood irrigations versus re...
Nanoclay, a processed clay, is utilized in numerous high-performance cement nanocomposites. This clay consists of minerals such as kaolinite, illite, chlorite, and smectite, which are the primary components of raw clay materials formed in the presenc...
Agricultural residues are generated during the production and processing of agricultural crops. Under modern date palm plantation practices, field operations generate huge quantities of residues, which are discarded with little valorization. The date...
Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) is emerging as a rapid and cost-effective alternative to routine laboratory analysis for many soil properties. However, it has primarily been applied in project-specific contexts. Here, we provide an assessment...
Plastic is an anthropogenic, ubiquitous and persistent contaminant accumulating in our environment. The consequences of the presence of plastics for soils, including soil biota and the processes they drive, are largely unknown. This is particularly t...
Africa, specifically Nigeria, has witnessed a dramatic increase in population over the last century, prompting efforts to ensure sustainable food production and quality. Concerns for soil sustainability and food security have led to the exploration o...
Amending soil with biochar is a promising approach to persistently improve soil health and promote crop growth. The efficacy of soil biochar amendment, however, is soil specific, biochar dependent, and influenced by the biochar application programs....
Soil is fundamental for the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems, but our knowledge about soil organisms and the habitat they provide (shortly: Soil biodiversity) is poorly developed. For instance, the European Atlas of Soil Biodiversity and the Glo...
Currently, a total of about 15,000 tons/day of waste is generated in the entire Dhaka city with an average per capita waste generation of 0.641 kg/day. Only 37% of this waste is collected and dumped into the two sanitary landfill sites, which is the...
Soil is a finite natural resource and is indispensable for human civilization because it is the medium for food production for the biosphere. Continued soil degradation is a forerunner of catastrophe for the living world. The protection of healthy so...
Soil inorganic carbon (SIC), a potential carbon sink especially in arid and semi-arid environments, contributes to soil development, landscape stability, carbon (C) sequestration, and global C dynamics but due to the lack of SIC scientific reporting...
Biochar application to soil has been proposed as a means for reducing soil greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating climate change. The effects, however, of interactions between biochar, moisture and temperature on soil CO2 and N2O emissions, remain p...
Repeated applications of phosphorus (P) fertilizers result in the buildup of P in soil (commonly known as legacy P), a large fraction of which is not immediately available for plant use. Long-term applications and accumulations of soil P is an ineffi...
Cadmium (Cd) is a heavy metal present in atmosphere, rocks, sediments, and soils without a known role in plants. It is relatively mobile and can easily enter from soil into groundwater and contaminate the food chain. Its presence in food in excess am...
Of all terrestrial ecosystems, peatlands store carbon most effectively in long-term scales of millennia. However, many peatlands have been drained for peat extraction or agricultural use. This converts peatlands from sinks to sources of carbon, causi...
The application of phosphate-solubilizing microbes (PSMs) as biofertilizers in agricultural systems has not satisfactorily solved the problem of reducing our reliance on chemical phosphorus (P) fertilizers. Ongoing efforts are continually trying to t...
Aluminum (Al) oxides are important adsorbents for phosphate in soils and sediments, and significantly limit Phosphate (P) mobility and bioavailability, but the speciation of surface-adsorbed phosphate on Al oxides remains poorly understood. Here, pho...
Soil micronutrients limit crop productivity in many regions worldwide, and micronutrient deficiencies affect over two billion people globally. Microbial biofertilizers could combat these issues by inoculating arable soils with microorganisms that mob...
The migration of heavy metals and radionuclides is interrelated, and this study focusses on the interaction and complex influence of various toxicants. The rehabilitation of radioactively contaminated territories has a complex character and is based...
Conservation agriculture (CA) is widely recognized as the cornerstone of sustainable agriculture. It prioritizes minimizing soil disturbance, maintaining permanent soil cover, and diversifying crop species to restore soil health and ecosystem resilie...
Mankind expects from forests and forest soils benefits like pure drinking water, space for recreation, habitats for nature-near biocenoses and the production of timber as unrivaled climate-friendly raw material. An overview over 208 recent articles r...
This study aimed to identify the characteristics of Andisols under tea plantations affected by different Oldeman’s agro-climatic zones, of different ages, and containing different types of volcanic ash material. For this study, three tea planta...
Grapevine cane and stalks were considered for pyrolysis at 400 to 700 °C to produce biochar for increasing the water holding capacity of vineyard soil. Feedstocks were pyrolysed using a continuous feed reactor and the resulting biochars characterized...
