Special Issue "Design of Agricultural Machinery and Associated Agroecosystem Development"

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Precision and Digital Agriculture".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 September 2021) | Viewed by 504

Special Issue Editors

Honorary Research Associate, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 960 Carling Ave., Ottawa, ON K1A 0C6, Canada
Interests: agricultural machinery; energy inputs; instrumentation
Dr. Shixiu Zhang
E-Mail
Co-Guest Editor
Northeast Institute of Geography and Agro-Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 4888 Shengbei Street, Changchun 130102, China
Interests: soil micro-food web structure and function
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Key Laboratory of Mollisols Agroecology, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Harbin, China
Interests: micro-food web; community structure; bacterivores; soil ecosystem function
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 4888 Shengbei Street, Changchun 130102, China
Interests: agroecosystem; soil management; soil physicochemistry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 4888 Shengbei Street, Changchun 130102, Jilin Province, China
Interests: soil physical structure; soil hydrology, tillage
Dr. Yan Zhang
E-Mail Website
Co-Guest Editor
Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Science, 4888 Shengbei Street, Changchun 130102, Jilin Province, China
Interests: agricultural management; soil carbon sequestration
Dr. Shuxia Jia
E-Mail Website
Co-Guest Editor
1. Department of Environmental Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA
2. College of Forestry, Beihua University, Binjiangdong Road 3999, Jilin City 132013, Jilin Province, China
Interests: root traits; soil microbial community; soil carbon cycling

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Agricultural machines have substantially increased the food production capability of a farmworker, freeing up other people to develop other aspects of modern culture and society. Recently, electronics and computers embedded into agricultural machines and systems have automated many tasks and, coupled with remote sensing and GPS, have allowed the development of precision agriculture, with inputs tuned to the production capability of different areas of a field. Machinery has complemented other biological developments and has contributed to improvements in the quality, quantity, and diversity of agricultural products.

At the same time, there are also negative aspects to intensive mechanization; modern machinery is very expensive, large and heavy field machinery causes soil compaction, and intensive tillage and crop production can have negative impacts on soil health and environmental quality. Clearly, a balance must be achieved between positive and negative aspects.

The aim of this Special Issue is to explore historical and new developments in agricultural machinery; papers are invited on both aspects. In addition to normal machine design and function, papers should address the impact, either positive or negative (or both), of machinery and machinery systems on some aspect of agroecosystem development. Here, an agroecosystem refers to both natural systems, including ecology, soil biology, and environmental quality, and societal aspects, such as food production, sustainability, and social and economic factors.

Dr. Neil B. McLaughlin
Dr. Shixiu Zhang
Dr. Fengjuan Pan
Dr. Aizhen Liang
Dr. Xuewen Chen
Dr. Yan Zhang
Dr. Shuxia Jia
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 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. Agronomy 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 2200 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 compaction
  • soil ecology
  • environmental quality
  • machine soil interaction
  • sustainability
  • precision agriculture
  • crop production

Published Papers

There is no accepted submissions to this special issue at this moment.
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