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Plants
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Chemical Properties of Soils and its Impact on Plant Growth
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Chemical Properties of Soils and its Impact on Plant Growth

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant–Soil Interactions".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 December 2025 | Viewed by 1534

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Josefa Lopez-Marin

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Crop Production and Agri-Technology, Murcia Institute of Agri-Food Research and Development (IMIDA), C/Mayor s/n, 30150 Murcia, Spain
Interests: agronomy; agriculture; crop protection; horticulture; stress abiotic; hidromulch
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The physical and chemical properties of soil play a central role in plant growth, affecting the supply of air, nutrients and water, and soil fertility, the ability to support plant production, is created via the interaction of physical, chemical and biological processes. Among these properties, soil texture, pH and organic matter have a significant impact on soil function and water and nutrient supply. In terms of chemical properties, nitrogen and calcium carbonate are the two most important nutrients in crop production, playing key roles in cell structure and plant metabolism, ultimately affecting the content and quality of plant secondary metabolites.

This Special Issue aims to create a representative and updated collection of research articles and reviews regarding the chemical properties of soils and their impact on plant growth.

Dr. Josefa Lopez-Marin
Guest Editor

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. Plants 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 2700 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

  • chemical properties
  • soils
  • plant growth

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 2357 KiB  
Article
Nitrogen Fertilizer Reduction in Rice–Eel Co-Culture System Improves the Soil Microbial Diversity and Its Functional Stability
by Mengqian Ma, Weiguang Lv, Yu Huang, Juanqin Zhang, Shuangxi Li, Naling Bai, Haiyun Zhang, Xianpu Zhu, Chenglong Xu and Hanlin Zhang
Plants 2025, 14(15), 2425; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14152425 - 5 Aug 2025
Viewed by 176
Abstract
The ecological rice–eel co-culture system is not only beneficial for enhancing productivity and sustainability in agriculture but also plays a crucial role in promoting environmental health. In the present study, based on the long-term positioning trial of the rice–eel co-culture system that began [...] Read more.
The ecological rice–eel co-culture system is not only beneficial for enhancing productivity and sustainability in agriculture but also plays a crucial role in promoting environmental health. In the present study, based on the long-term positioning trial of the rice–eel co-culture system that began in 2016 and was sampled in 2023, the effects of reduced nitrogen fertilizer application on soil physico-chemical properties and the bacterial community were investigated. Treatments included a conventional regular fertilization treatment (RT), rice–eel co-culture system regular fertilization (IT), and nitrogen-reduction 10%, 30%, and 50% fertilization treatments (IT90, IT70, and IT50). Our research demonstrated the following: (1) Compared to RT, IT significantly increased soil water-stable macroaggregates (R0.25), mean weight diameter (MWD), geometric mean diameter (GMD), and available phosphorus content, with the increases of 15.66%, 25.49%, 36.00%, and 18.42%, respectively. Among the nitrogen-reduction fertilization treatments, IT90 showed the most significant effect. Compared to IT, IT90 significantly increased R0.25, MWD, GMD, and available nitrogen content, with increases of 4.4%, 7.81%, 8.82%, and 28.89%, respectively. (2) Compared to RT, at the phylum level, the diversity of Chloroflexi was significantly increased under IT and IT50, and the diversity of Gemmatimonadota was significantly increased under IT90, IT70, and IT50. The diversity of Acidobacteriota was significantly higher in IT90 and IT70 compared to IT. It was shown that the rice–eel co-culture system and nitrogen fertilizer reduction could effectively improve the degradation capacity of organic matter and promote soil nitrogen cycling. In addition, redundancy analysis (RDA) identified total phosphorus, total nitrogen, and available nitrogen (p = 0.007) as the three most important environmental factors driving changes in the bacterial community. (3) The functional prediction analysis of soil microbiota showed that, compared to RT, the diversity of pathways related to biosynthesis (carbohydrate biosynthesis and cell structure biosynthesis) and metabolism (L-glutamate and L-glutamine biosynthesis) was significantly higher under IT70, IT90, IT, and IT50 (in descending order). However, the diversity of pathways associated with degradation/utilization/assimilation (secondary metabolite degradation and amine and polyamine degradation) was significantly lower under all the rice–eel co-culture treatments. In conclusion, the rice–eel co-culture system improved soil physicochemical properties and the soil microbial environment compared with conventional planting, and the best soil improvement was achieved with 10% less N fertilizer application. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Chemical Properties of Soils and its Impact on Plant Growth)
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12 pages, 3110 KiB  
Article
Effects of Artificial Vegetation Restoration Pattern on Soil Phosphorus Fractions in Alpine Desertification Grassland
by Hongyu Qian, Nairui Yang, Haodong Jiang, Yinan Li, Ao Shen and Yufu Hu
Plants 2025, 14(10), 1429; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14101429 - 10 May 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 452
Abstract
Phosphorus (P) is essential for plant growth, but its soil availability depends on the characteristics of P fractions. However, few studies have examined soil P fractions under ecological restoration in alpine and semi-humid regions. This study investigated three restoration methods on the eastern [...] Read more.
Phosphorus (P) is essential for plant growth, but its soil availability depends on the characteristics of P fractions. However, few studies have examined soil P fractions under ecological restoration in alpine and semi-humid regions. This study investigated three restoration methods on the eastern Tibetan Plateau: planting mixed grasses (MG), planting Salix cupularis alone (SA), and planting Salix cupularis in combination with grasses (SG), restored for 14 years, with untreated sandy land (CK) as control. Through field sampling and laboratory analysis, soil P fractions and physicochemical properties were analyzed. The findings demonstrate that the three ecological restoration modes could increase total P and total organic P content and reduce inorganic P content. Ecological restoration can improve the content of soil labile P (resin-Pi, NaHCO3-Pi, and NaHCO3-Po) by activating NaOH-Pi and HCl-P, thus improving the availability of soil P and increasing the potential P (residual-P) source. Soil P fractions content positively correlated with SWC, SOC, and TN (p < 0.05) but negatively with BD and pH (p < 0.05). The experimental outcomes of this study will help to understand the P availability and its potential sources during ecological restoration while providing a scientific foundation for selecting optimal restoration strategies in alpine sandy land. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Chemical Properties of Soils and its Impact on Plant Growth)
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17 pages, 2595 KiB  
Article
Long-Term Effects of Nitrogen and Lime Application on Plant–Microbial Interactions and Soil Carbon Stability in a Semi-Arid Grassland
by Kwenama Buthelezi and Nkosinomusa Buthelezi-Dube
Plants 2025, 14(9), 1302; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14091302 - 25 Apr 2025
Viewed by 502
Abstract
This study investigated the long-term (70 years) effects of N fertilisation (ammonium nitrate [AN], ammonium sulphate [AS]) at 70 and 211 kg N kg/ha, and liming (L) on plant–microbial interaction and soil carbon stability in a semi-arid grassland in South Africa. Aboveground biomass [...] Read more.
This study investigated the long-term (70 years) effects of N fertilisation (ammonium nitrate [AN], ammonium sulphate [AS]) at 70 and 211 kg N kg/ha, and liming (L) on plant–microbial interaction and soil carbon stability in a semi-arid grassland in South Africa. Aboveground biomass increased with N addition, particularly AN211, showing a 119% increase compared to the control, while both liming and N applications increased belowground biomass. Nitrogen addition significantly altered plant stoichiometric ratios, with root N ratios showing greater treatment-induced variation (12.7–51.3) than shoot N ratios (10.2–16.8). Microbial biomass carbon peaked with AN70 treatment, while dehydrogenase activity was highest in lime-only plots but suppressed in non-limed N treatments. Conversely, urease activity was highest in the control group and suppressed in most fertilised treatments. Despite increased biomass production, SOC remained unchanged across treatments (49.7–57.6 g/kg), whereas soil pH was lowest (<3.5) and highest (>6) under N fertilisation and lime, respectively. PCA revealed distinct clustering of treatments, with N forms differentially affecting plant allocation patterns and microbial parameters. This study demonstrates that plant–soil–microbe stoichiometric imbalances and pH-induced limitations on microbial function explain the disconnect between plant productivity and carbon sequestration in this semi-arid grassland ecosystem. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Chemical Properties of Soils and its Impact on Plant Growth)
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