Effects and Mechanisms of Organic Fertilizer Application on Soil Health, Crop Yield, and Greenhouse Gas Emissions
A Special Issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395) belonging to the section "Soil and Plant Nutrition".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2026 | Viewed by 253
Editor
Interests: characteristics of greenhouse gas emissions in soil; carbon and nitrogen cycling in soil; improving nitrogen use efficiency in crops; microbial biofertilizers for sustainable agriculture
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Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Conventional agriculture’s dependence on synthetic nitrogen fertilizers has boosted yields but caused progressive soil acidification, biodiversity decline, and high N₂O emissions. Organic fertilizers improve soil organic carbon and structural resilience, yet their effects on yield stability and net greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes (N₂O, CH₄) are highly variable across environments and management practices. Current research has shifted from full substitution to quantifying optimal partial replacement rates of synthetic N with organic N. These rates aim to maintain yield while avoiding increased net greenhouse gas intensity. Underlying microbial and biogeochemical mechanisms driving these outcomes are now a central focus.
This Special Issue aims to elucidate the multifaceted effects of organic fertilizer application across agroecosystems. We invite research that integrates soil health indicators (physical, chemical, biological); crop productivity (yield stability, nutrient use efficiency); and GHG emissions (N₂O, CO₂, CH₄) to unravel the underlying mechanisms—particularly microbial and metabolic pathways—that govern these interconnected outcomes.
Recent meta-analyses reveal that partial organic substitution enhances soil quality indices and increases crop yields while reducing GHG intensity. Advanced metagenomic studies show that organic fertilizers modulate nitrogen cycling genes—significantly increasing nitrogen fixation and assimilatory nitrate reduction—and reshape rhizosphere microbial communities through metabolite-mediated recruitment of functional fungi. Notably, bio-organic fertilizers have been shown to downregulate carbon-degrading genes and reduce denitrification potential, thereby optimizing C/N cycling.
We invite original research articles and critical reviews that (1) quantify optimal organic nitrogen substitution rates and characterize their context-dependence across soil types, climates, and cropping systems; (2) integrate multi-omics approaches to establish causal, process-level linkages between microbial functional gene abundance, expression, and activity—and measurable outcomes in soil biogeochemistry and GHG fluxes; (3) draw on long-term field experiments to capture critical temporal dynamics; and (4) adopt standardized, life-cycle-informed assessments of yield-scaled emissions and full-system carbon footprints to advance evidence-based pathways toward low-carbon, high-resilience agriculture.
Dr. Weichao Yang
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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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.
Keywords
- organic fertilizers
- bio-organic fertilizers
- greenhouse gases
- soil organic carbon
- crop productivity
- optimal organic nitrogen substitution rates
- rhizosphere microbial communities
- C/N cycling
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