Sustaining Soil Health in Forest Ecosystems: Ecological Approaches, Best Practices, Strategies and Innovations
A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Soil".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 19
Special Issue Editors
Interests: soil quality; soil health; ecosystem services; soil microbial biomass and activity
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: soil quality monitoring; carbon sequestration
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Forest soils have long been recognized as having several critical functions, including supporting vegetation growth, nutrient cycling, and water regulation. Therefore, maintaining the quality of soil in forest ecosystems is vital for the ecosystem’s health, biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and sustainable forest productivity.
Humanity's increasing recognition of soil as a dynamic, living system rather than merely a growing medium for plant growth is reflected in the history of soil quality assessment. In recent decades, assessing the quality of soil—also known as soil health—has become crucial for determining how forest management practices affect soil, which is an important part of achieving the Sustainable Development Goal of 75% healthy soils by 2030.
This Special Issue explores the multifaceted nature of soil quality/health within forest ecosystems, evaluating the complex relationships between soil’s physical, chemical, and biological properties and their influence on the overall ecosystem function. It also investigates how soil quality/health directly underpins the provision of crucial ecosystem services, including timber production, biodiversity conservation, climate regulation, and water purification.
Cutting-edge research in this area could advance our understanding of the dynamics of soil quality/health in forest ecosystems, suggesting sustainable management practices that ensure the long-term health and functionality of forest ecosystems.
The Special Issue welcomes research, reviews, and meta-analyses on innovative strategies, methodologies, and case studies related to improving and maintaining the quality of forest soil. This includes, but is not limited to, studies on sustainable forest management practices, biodiversity's role in soil health, the impact of climate change on soil properties, and novel soil monitoring technologies, as well as contributions focusing on geostatistical, remote sensing, and modeling methods and multivariate approaches.
Dr. Rossana Marzaioli
Dr. Gaurav Mishra
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. Forests 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 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
- soil quality
- forest soil
- sustainable soil management
- healthy soil
- ecosystem services
- SDGs
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