Soil Fertility, Plant Nutrition and Nutrient Management

Dear Colleagues,

Soil fertility refers to the ability of soil to sustain agricultural plant growth. Fertile soil provides a habitat with essential nutrients; favorable chemical, physical, and biological characteristics; and no toxic substances which may inhibit plant development. Essential plant nutrients are critical for plant growth and reproduction; deficiency of those may cause the failure of the plant growth cycle. If the soil is cropped, it is necessary to supplement soil fertility through the addition of fertilizer to satisfy crop growth demand and increase or sustain yield. Appropriate nutrient management is crucial to beneficial agronomic systems and environmentally safe crop production. The form of each element that plants absorb from soil, the relative amount of nutrients needed for optimum economic yield, the quantity removed via crop harvest, nutrient transformations and interactions within the soil, and the potential mobility of nutrients are advantageous for rational fertilization strategies. Nutrient diagnosis along with soil testing, plant analysis, and crop canopy sensing as main methods are legislation tools for plant nutrition determination and crucial steps for fertilizer recommendations to producers or crop advisors.

In this Special Issue, we welcome the submission of interdisciplinary work in the format of original research papers, case studies, and review articles related to soil fertility, plant nutrition, and nutrient management. The effects of environmental factors, including all types of biotic and abiotic factors, on the changes in various soil fertility characteristics, and the subsequent actions on nutrient absorption and utilization by crops at physiological, molecular, and ecological levels, are all welcome. The approaches and strategies for nutrient management for fertilizer use efficiency and plant production improvements are also appreciated.

Dr. Lin Tang
Guest Editor

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