Dear Colleagues,

Soil organic matter (SOM) is the most important soil component that ensures optimal soil physical and chemical properties and its high agroecological potential. The quality and quantity of soil organic matter in agricultural areas directly depends on the crop rotation, application of agrotechnical and agrochemical measures and their balance. This is referred to as an agrosystem. Those agrosystems, the application of which increases the amount of SOM, maintains the good physical properties of the soil and preserves the high agroecological potential of the soil, are known as sustainable soil management practices. These practices or the priorities of their application may differ depending on the agroecosystems in which they are applied, because they (the landscape territorial complex) are characterized by a specific relationship between agricultural and ecological land, relief, geological development, and history of the use of the territory, as well as the geoecological and agroecological potential of the soil (natural and formed productivity).

To achieve sustainable soil use and to solve the challenges of climate change, no till and reduced till are used as opposed to traditional tillage, and organic fertilizers are used as opposed to mineral ones with local fertilizers replacing imported ones. It is the local fertilizers that are mostly associated with the organic biomass present in the specific agroecosystem and the local administrative unit of the territory. Therefore, it is necessary to promote research into various ways of using organic biomass in agriculture (direct, greening, composting, digestate, etc.). In order to determine their role, not only for the amount of agricultural production, but, above all, for the quality of the soil properties and especially for the increase in and quality of the SOM, as well as the C:N, and HA:FA ratios.

The aim of this Special Issue is to reveal how different practices of soil use in agriculture and the use of organic fertilizers within them contribute to increasing the amount of SOM in the soil and improving its quality.

Suggested themes:

• The differences in SOM content in different soils and its increase.
• The differences in SOM quality in soils with different uses and quality improvement.
• The effects of different organic fertilizers on SOM quantity and quality in soils.
• Control of the mineralization and humification processes in mineral and organic soils.
• The influence of tillage methods on the amount and quality of SOM in soils.
• The application of different agrosystems in different agroecosystems to increase SOM content.
• The use of anaerobic digestion waste as organic fertilizer to increase SOM content.
• Fertility restoration of eroded soils using SOM enhancement techniques.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following: soil organic carbon, soil organic matter, qualitative substance of humus, humic acids, influence of tillage on SOM, organic fertilizing, an the restoration of eroded soils.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Kristina Amalevičiūtė-Volungė
Dr. Jonas Volungevičius
Guest Editors

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• soil organic matter
• organic fertilizers
• agrosystem
• agroecosystem
• sustainable soil management
• liming
• compost
• anaerobic digestate
• humification
• mineralization