Land, Soil and Water

The Land, Soil, and Water section of the journal Land invites papers and opinions addressing the nexus between land, soil and water. The section encompasses all the attributes of the biosphere immediately above and below the surface of terrestrial ecosystems. Therefore, soil ecosystem services provide a robust platform for describing and limiting the scope of this nexus. The aim of this section is to promote the evaluation, documentation and management of this nexus. Specifically, we are inviting manuscripts addressing the interaction of soils and water in a terrestrial environment. Manuscripts can be theoretical, applied, ‘state of the science’ reviews and opinion papers. Interdisciplinary manuscripts are particularly welcome. The scope of this section is defined by these recommended topics which include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Support of food, fiber, fuel and water production.
• Soil/Water management in the context of agriculture, urbanization and forestry.
• Role of soil fertility, other soil chemical properties, and soil physical properties in the use and management of systems such as precision agriculture.
• Soil and water control of nutrient cycling.
• Land/soil degradation and reclamation related to human activity and/or climate change due to agents of modification such as soil erosion, chemical pollution, and desertification, as examples.
• Soil health
• Soil biological dynamics that control/affect soil use.
• Climate change mitigation and methods of adaptation, with special emphasis on soil carbon sequestration.
• Aesthetics and other cultural land ecosystem services that are a function of soil, landscape form and history.
• Surface runoff as a function of landform (slope changes affecting surface runoff). This would include human changes to the landscape that affect water movement and the contaminants within, such as urbanization, agriculture use of fertilizers, and the use of other chemicals affecting water quality.
• Soil mapping, interpretation, prediction (such as digital mapping, AI and modeling).
• Description and/or evaluation of soil ecosystem services.