Systematic Investigation of Coupled Abiotic and Biotic Controls on Soil Biogeochemistry

Dear Colleagues,

The role soils play in terrestrial ecosystems is irreplaceable—they sustain huge amounts of plant growth, host an incalculable complexity of microbial populations, play an active role in carbon storage and cycling, and directly impact society through multiple aspects of water purity and food supply. Simultaneously, soils provide an inherent linkage among carbon dynamics, microbial processes, nutrient availabilities, and mineralogy, as controls on ecosystem functions from molecular to ecosystem scales. Within such dynamic and complex systems, the roles of feedback interactions, competitive or collaborative mechanisms, and spatiotemporal variability in regulating soil carbon dynamics, remain unclear. Addressing the emerging scientific frontiers essential for an enhanced understanding of the soil biogeochemical processes requires interdisciplinary investigations that couple microbial ecology and geochemistry in laboratory, field, and modeling studies.

This Special Issue invites authors to submit works focused on the dynamic connections at the interface of biota (roots and microbes), soil carbon, nutrients, and minerals in soil systems. Specifically, work relevant to, but not limit to, microbial-derived organic matter accumulation or transformation, mineral–organic matter interactions, coupled carbon–nutrient cycles, and carbon dynamics across the root–rhizosphere–soil continuum are welcomed. The application of state-of-the-art technologies, such as omics, high-resolution mass spectroscopy, stable isotope tracers, in-situ imaging, and many others are strongly encouraged, as such scientific studies provide new insights to this vital, yet challenging to study, system. This Special Issue advances our conceptual understanding of the roles of microbes and minerals in driving the rate of transformation, uptake, and loss of chemical elements from soil ecosystems, with broad implications on the responses the biogeochemical processes in the soil to the changing environment.

Dr. James Moran
Dr. Qian Zhao
Dr. Yu (Frank) Yang
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. Soil Systems is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly 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 1800 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.

• soil carbon
• spatial heterogeneity
• rhizosphere
• hotspots
• nutrient cycling
• mineral–organic matter interactions
• carbon stabilization
• mineralogy
• biogeochemistry
• microbial ecology