The Effects of Crop Tillage Systems on Carbon Dynamics in Soils

Dear Colleagues, 

Building up soil organic matter stock in croplands can greatly help tackle the three main challenges faced by world agriculture today: high productivity, low greenhouse gases emissions and adaptation to climate change. Soil organic carbon is increasingly considered in the climatic change agenda as a major dynamic terrestrial stock of carbon. The challenging initiative “4 per 1000” further developed within the Koronivia Joint Work for Agriculture framework encourages agriculturalists to apply techniques for carbon sequestration in agricultural soils. However, the possibility of effective soil organic matter management has certain limitations, including the following constraints: the quantity of carbon stored in soil is finite, the process is reversible and building up soil organic carbon can potentially increase the emissions of climatically active gases from soil. Measurement, monitoring, and modelling of carbon dynamics in soils are of major importance for understanding the potential ability of soil management techniques to help carbon sequestration in soils. The development of carbon-friendly crop tillage systems is required at the regional level.

Original research and review papers are invited. Authors from developing countries are especially welcomed. Papers chosen for publication will be selected by a rigorous peer-review procedure, with the aim of rapidly disseminating the research results.

Key topics in this Special Issue include but are not limited to the following:

• The assessment of carbon dynamics and monitoring greenhouse gases fluxes from soil under various cropping systems;
• The effects of organic fertilizers (crop residues, animal manures, compost, biochar, ashes etc.) on soil carbon dynamics;
• Conservation agriculture and other non-conventional land management practices for the enhancement of carbon sequestration in soils;
• Modelling of soil carbon dynamics under various cropping systems and changing climate conditions;
• Economic assessment of the suitability of various crop tillage systems for increasing organic carbon stock in soils.

Dr. Pavel Krasilnikov
Dr. Miguel A. Taboada
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agronomy is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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.