Climate Change towards Soil Health and Water Quality

Dear Colleagues,

Climate change has the potential of altering soil–plant–water systems in different ways. For example, changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide, temperature, and precipitation patterns and amounts will determine future biomass decomposition rates, and thus modify the soil–plant–water system interactions. In turn, this will have an impact on the amount of organic carbon levels in soils. This is particularly important because soil organic carbon determines important soil health properties and processes, such as soil fertility, structure, water infiltration and microbial population, among others. Because climate change affects precipitation, it is important to understand the relationship between soil health and water quality. Notably, soils store more than 60% of precipitation and thus play a major role in the hydrologic cycle. This suggests that soil health can impact water quality. Hence, more research is needed to promote proper soil management systems to protect and enhance both soil health and water quality.

The purpose of our Special Issue is to quantify the status of soil health and the adoption level of soil health management systems across diverse climatic conditions to establish a baseline for measuring future progress. Moreover, we aim to evaluate the potential water quality improvements under different levels of soil health management system adoption to prioritize land management practices.

This Special Issue welcomes related to the following topics:

• Agroforestry;
• Conventional farming systems;
• Soil conservation with cover crops;
• Crop residue management;
• Contrasting tillage systems;
• Animal grazing systems;
• Wildlife habitat management

Dr. Leonard C. Kibet
Prof. Dr. Vitalis W. Temu
Dr. Samuel N. Mwangi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• Soil health
• Water quality
• Climate change
• Soil management
• Cover crops
• Residue management
• Tillage systems
• Grazing systems
• Ecology
• Agronomy