Frontiers in Soil Carbon Sequestration in Grasslands, Agriculture and Forests

Dear Colleagues,

Soil carbon pool is the largest carbon pool in the terrestrial ecosystem, which is equivalent to 3.3 times the atmospheric carbon pool or 4.5 times the terrestrial plant carbon pool. Enhancing soil carbon sequestration capacity is an important way to slow down the increase in atmospheric CO₂ concentration. It is also an important indirect emission reduction means to achieve the strategic goal of "carbon neutrality". Grassland, agriculture, and forests are the most important carbon pools of the terrestrial ecosystem, approximately accounting for 87% of the total carbon pool, of which 84% is stored in soil. Under global climate change and human disturbance, the trigger, response, adaptation, and feedback process and mechanism of soil carbon in grassland, agriculture, and forest are still unclear. More specifically, how carbon sequestration changes, where carbon sinks originate, and which projects should be strengthened to increase carbon sequestration are still largely unclear. Frontiers in soil carbon sequestration in grassland, agriculture, and forests will provide scientific basis and theoretical support for accomplishing the global new carbon neutrality pledge.

We invite papers from researchers to share findings from a field experiment (multiple sites), large-scale transect survey, combined with remote sensing products. Long-term research results are welcome.

• Spatial–temporal patterns and drivers of grassland, agriculture, and forests carbon sink by integrating the ecological process models and remote sensing observations;
• Variations of grassland, agriculture, and forests carbon sequestration, and response and feedback of ecological processes using long-term experiment or large-scale transect survey;
• Exploring the mechanism of soil carbon dynamics and stability using new analyzed methods (e.g., spectroscopic methods, thermal analysis, X-ray computed tomography, and scanning electron microscopy);
• Distinguishing the impacts of natural and anthropogenic-induced perturbations on grassland, agriculture, and forests carbon sequestration;
• Exploring the mechanism and methods of expediting carbon sequestration rehabilitation during the ecological restoration process of a degraded ecosystem.

The articles included in this Special Issue shall explicitly address one or more of the above topics, exploring and discussing conceptual and methodological solutions, tools, and case studies.

Dr. Juejie Yang
Prof. Dr. Shikui Dong
Prof. Dr. Lin Liu
Prof. Dr. Fei Li
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. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2400 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.