Special Issue "Soil Quality and Health to Assess Agro-Ecosystems Services"

A special issue of Agriculture (ISSN 2077-0472). This special issue belongs to the section "Agricultural Soils".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 February 2022.

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Sara Marinari
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Guest Editor
Department for Innovation in Biological, Agro-food and Forest systems DIBAF, Tuscia University, Tuscia, Italy
Interests: soil science; pedogenesis; soil processes; biogeochemical cycling; agricultural management
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Prof. Dr. Roberto Mancinelli
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Guest Editor
Department of Agriculture and Forest Sciences (DAFNE), University of Tuscia, 01100 Viterbo, Italy
Interests: crop production; crop protection; weed control; agricultural systems and management; environment and climate change in agriculture; greenhouse gas emissions
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Dr. Emanuele Radicetti
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Guest Editor
Department of Chemical, Pharmaceutical and Agricultural Sciences (DOCPAS), University of Ferrara, Luigi Borsari 46, 44121 Ferrara, Italy
Interests: sustainable crop production; weed management; agroecological service crops; nitrogen management; soil management
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With human health being linked to soil health, the most evident thing that soils do for people is provide a basis for food production. However, other critical ecosystem services are provided by healthy soils to human health, including carbon sequestration, detoxification, water and nutrient retention, and maintaining biodiversity. As the Guest Editor of the Special Issue below, I would like to invite you to contribute with a paper regarding experimental studies on soil quality/health assessment in agricultural systems to evaluate ecological services beyond food production, promoting knowledge on sustainable agricultural management for natural resource maintenance and future progress of agroecosystems. In order to evaluate the agricultural management, in this Special Issue, various soil functions will be taken into account: (i) soil water absorption and retention affecting available water for the cropping system and reduction of surface runoff and erosion risk; (ii) soil-regulating nutrients, pollutant or sediment transformations, and movement to surface- or groundwater affecting water quality; (iii) soil acting as a source or a sink for several greenhouse gases affecting atmosphere quality; and (iv) soil providing habitat for soil biota, which represents an important source of biodiversity.

Dr. Sara Marinari
Prof. Dr. Roberto Mancinelli
Dr. Emanuele Radicetti
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 papers will be 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. Agriculture 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 1600 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 quality index
  • nutrients cycling
  • soil physical properties
  • soil biodiversity
  • water quality
  • water cycling
  • greenhouse gas emission
  • sustainable agriculture
  • cropping systems

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

Communication
Effect of Cover Crop, Slurry Application with Different Loads and Tire Inflation Pressures on Tire Track Depth, Soil Penetration Resistance and Maize Yield
Agriculture 2021, 11(7), 641; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11070641 - 08 Jul 2021
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Abstract
Agricultural soils can be affected in their ecological functions by in-field traffic of agricultural machinery. A three-factorial research design was carried out in a field experiment to test the effect of slurry tanker filling level (filled, half-filled, empty), tire inflation pressure of the [...] Read more.
Agricultural soils can be affected in their ecological functions by in-field traffic of agricultural machinery. A three-factorial research design was carried out in a field experiment to test the effect of slurry tanker filling level (filled, half-filled, empty), tire inflation pressure of the slurry tanker (high: 300 kPa, low: 100 kPa), and ground covering (+cover crop, −cover crop) on tire track and soil penetration resistance (averaged, 0–20 cm, 21–40 cm) after application on the fields in spring. Additionally, the effect on grain yield of the subsequent culture was considered. The total weight of the tractor slurry tanker combination was 16,470 kg (empty), 25,940 kg (half-filled), and 34,620 kg (filled). The low tire inflation pressure of the slurry tanker increased the mean tire–soil contact area by 75% (filled), 38% (half-filled), and 16% (empty tanker). The results obtained show a significant effect of tire inflation pressure and ground covering on the measured parameters. The tire inflation pressure reduction effect on track depth was highest in the filled slurry tanker (−17.8%). With increasing wheel load, the effect of reduced tire inflation pressure on soil penetration resistance (0–20 cm) increased. In the subsoil (21–40 cm), the effect of tire inflation pressure was much lower, indicating that a reduction of tire inflation pressure preserves the upper layers rather than the lower ones. Furthermore, cover crops are linked to a higher degree of soil deformation after traffic with the tractor–slurry combination due to their loosening effect on the topsoil. Tire tracks were 15.0% deeper in the cover crop field than in the field without a cover crop. It is assumed that cover crop mixtures with different types of root mass can influence the mitigation of soil compaction in an ameliorative way. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soil Quality and Health to Assess Agro-Ecosystems Services)
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Article
Soil Health Evaluation of Farmland Based on Functional Soil Management—A Case Study of Yixing City, Jiangsu Province, China
Agriculture 2021, 11(7), 583; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11070583 - 24 Jun 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 348
Abstract
Given that farmland serves as a strategic resource to ensure national food security, blind emphasis on the improvement of food production capacity can lead to soil overutilization and impair other soil functions. Hence, the evaluation of soil health (SH) should comprehensively take soil [...] Read more.
Given that farmland serves as a strategic resource to ensure national food security, blind emphasis on the improvement of food production capacity can lead to soil overutilization and impair other soil functions. Hence, the evaluation of soil health (SH) should comprehensively take soil productivity and ecological environmental effects into account. In this study, five functions from the perspective of functional soil management were summarized, including primary productivity, provision and cycling of nutrients, the provision of functional and intrinsic biodiversity, water purification and regulation, and carbon sequestration and regulation. For each soil function, in view of the natural and ameliorable conditions affecting SH, basic indicators were selected from the two aspects of inherent and dynamic properties, and restrictive indicators were chosen considering the external properties or environmental elements, with the minimum limiting factor method coupled with weighted linear model. The new evaluation system was tested and verified in Yixing City, China. The healthy and optimally functional soils were concentrated in the northeast and mid-west of Yixing City, whereas unhealthy soils were predominant in the south and around Taihu Lake. The main limitations to SH improvement included cation exchange capacity, nutrient elements, and soluble carbon. The SH evaluation method was verified using the crop performance validation method, and a positive correlation was noted between food production stability index and soil health index, indicating that the evaluation system is reasonable. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soil Quality and Health to Assess Agro-Ecosystems Services)
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