Soil Carbon Management for Crop Production

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Crop Physiology and Crop Production".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2026 | Viewed by 3619

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
School of Geographical Sciences, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
Interests: soil carbon cycle and simulation; agricultural sustainability; soil and water conservation; land evaluation; environmental pollution and remediation; digital soil mapping; remote sensing and application; fragile ecosystem environmental evaluation

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Guest Editor
Institute of Soil Science, Leibniz University of Hannover, 30419 Hannover, Germany
Interests: soil inorganic carbon; land-use change, agropedogenesis; climate change
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
School of Geographical Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
Interests: soil carbon stability; soil quality; fragile ecosystem; land use change; climate change
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
College of Agricultural Science and Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China
Interests: irrigation and drainage; soil and water conservation; saline-alkali land reclamation; agricultural nonpoint source pollution
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Soils have a huge carbon reservoir, which is seen as a potential solution to mitigate the drawbacks of global changes. Carbon losses have major impacts on soil health as it controls soil fertility, aggregate stability, microbial activity and plant growth. Soil carbon turnover is dynamic, and rapidly changing paradigms due to intensive agricultural practices make carbon management challenging. Specially that, our knowledge about factors and processes controlling the dynamics of carbon under cultivated management practices aiming for yield and environmental profits is still primitive. It is a win-win strategy not only for increasing soil and plant productivity but also bringing the environmental benefits in a changing climate. Hence, this special issue invites original research, technology reports, modeling approaches and methods, opinions, perspectives, and reviews on carbon management in the plant-soil system. Contributions are welcome, but not limited to the following topics:

  • Soil’s carbon chemistry and its turnover in agricultural systems depending on soil types, properties, and crops;
  • The effects of land management practices on degradation and transformation of soil carbon and consequences for soil microorganisms, soil health, and crop productivity;
  • The contribution and consequences of losses in soil’s organic and inorganic carbon for climate change, soil health, and crop growth;
  • Quantifying the influence of coupling of the soil carbon cycle with nitrogen and phosphorus cycles and understanding the microbial mechanisms that meet the crops’ demands;
  • Processes, driving factors, and management practices that control the trade-offs of soil organic and inorganic carbon and high crop yields;
  • Best management practices and technological innovations to reduce carbon loss in soil and increase crop yields;
  • Management practices to maintain soil health and carbon contents and improve crop growth in soils that are contaminated by microplastics, antibiotics, heavy metals, pesticides, insecticides, etc.

Prof. Dr. Xiaoning Zhao
Dr. Kazem Zamanian
Dr. Pujia Yu
Prof. Dr. Xiangping Guo
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • soil carbon management
  • ecosystem services
  • soil productivity
  • soil health

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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20 pages, 19570 KiB  
Article
Effect of Combined Application of Wood Vinegar Solution and Biochar on Saline Soil Properties and Cotton Stress Tolerance
by Liu Yang, Guangmu Tang, Wanli Xu, Yunshu Zhang, Songrui Ning, Pujia Yu, Jie Zhu, Qingsong Wu and Peng Yu
Plants 2024, 13(17), 2427; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13172427 - 30 Aug 2024
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2011
Abstract
Biomass pyrolysis by-products, such as biochar (BC) and wood vinegar (WV), are widely used as soil conditioners and efficiency enhancers in agriculture. A pot experiment was conducted to examine the effects of WV, both alone and in combination with BC, on soil properties [...] Read more.
Biomass pyrolysis by-products, such as biochar (BC) and wood vinegar (WV), are widely used as soil conditioners and efficiency enhancers in agriculture. A pot experiment was conducted to examine the effects of WV, both alone and in combination with BC, on soil properties in mildly saline soil and on cotton stress tolerance. The results demonstrated that BC and WV application, either individually or together, increased soil nutrient content. The combined application was more effective than the individual applications, resulting in a 5.18–20.12% increase in organic matter, a 2.65–15.04% increase in hydrolysable nitrogen, a 2.23–58.05% increase in effective phosphorus, and a 2.71–29.38% increase in quick-acting potassium. Additionally, the combined application of WV and BC led to greater improvements in cotton plant height, net photosynthetic rate (Pn), leaf nitrate reductase (NR), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and catalase (CAT) activities compared to the application of BC or WV alone. The enhancements in this study varied across different parameters. Plant height showed an increase of 14.32–21.90%. Net photosynthetic rate improved by 13.56–17.60%. Leaf nitrate reductase increased by 5.47–37.79%. Superoxide dismutase and catalase showed improvements of 5.82–64.95% and 10.36–71.40%, respectively (p < 0.05). Moreover, the combined treatment outperformed the individual applications of WV and BC, resulting in a significant decrease in MDA levels by 2.47–51.72% over the experimental period. This combined treatment ultimately enhanced cotton stress tolerance. Using the entropy weight method to analyze the results, it was concluded that the combined application of WV and BC could enhance soil properties in mildly saline soils, increase cotton resistance, and hold significant potential for widespread application. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soil Carbon Management for Crop Production)
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16 pages, 8131 KiB  
Essay
Impact of Different Land-Use Types on Soil Microbial Carbon Metabolism Function in Arid Region of Alpine Grassland
by Keyi Li, Yaoguang Han, Mo Chen, Guangling Yu, Maidinuer Abulaizi, Yang Hu, Bohao Wang, Zailei Yang, Xinping Zhu and Hongtao Jia
Plants 2024, 13(24), 3531; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13243531 - 18 Dec 2024
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Abstract
There are discrepancies that exist in the effects of different land uses on soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil microbial carbon metabolism functions. However, the impact of land-use type changes on soil microbial carbon metabolism in alpine grassland arid areas is not well [...] Read more.
There are discrepancies that exist in the effects of different land uses on soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil microbial carbon metabolism functions. However, the impact of land-use type changes on soil microbial carbon metabolism in alpine grassland arid areas is not well understood, hindering our understanding of the carbon cycling processes in these ecosystems. Therefore, we chose three types of land use (continuous reclamation of grassland (RG), abandoned grassland (AG), and natural grazing grassland (GG)) to study the microbial carbon metabolism and its driving factors by the Biolog-ECO method. The results showed that the soil organic carbon content decreased by 16.02% in the RG and by 32.1% in the AG compared to the GG in the 0–20 cm soil layer (p < 0.05). Additionally, microorganisms have the highest utilization efficiency of carbohydrate carbon sources, the average values of average well color development (AWCD) were RG (0.26), AG (0.35), and GG (0.26). In the 0–20 cm soil layer, the Shannon–Wiener and the Simpson indices were 3% and 1% higher in the AG compared to the GG, respectively. The soil TOC/TN and soil available phosphorus (AP) were key factors that affected the diversity of soil microbial and carbon metabolism. They were closely related to land-use types. This study holds that abandoning grasslands accelerates the carbon metabolism of microorganisms, leading to the loss of SOC content. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soil Carbon Management for Crop Production)
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