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Sustainable Soil Management: Conservation Strategies for Agricultural Resilience
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Sustainable Soil Management: Conservation Strategies for Agricultural Resilience

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Soil Conservation and Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 17 July 2025 | Viewed by 2033

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Chijioke Emenike

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Plant, Food, and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Dalhousie University, Truro, NS B2N 5E3, Canada
Interests: waste management; plastic degradation; pollutant toxicity; bioremediation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Temitope Ojo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Plant, Food, and Environmental Sciences, Dalhousie University, Truro, NS B2N 5E3, Canada
Interests: agricultural economics; environmental economics; food systems; phytoremediation; microplastics
Dr. Patricia Omo-Okoro

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Plant, Food, and Environmental Sciences, Dalhousie University, Truro, NS B2N 5E3, Canada
Interests: environmental remediation; wastewater treatment; agricultural residues; wood chemicals
Dr. Lord Abbey

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department Plant Food, and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Dal-housie University, Bible Hill, NS B2N5E3, Canada
Interests: horticulture; biostimulants; compost; abiotic stress
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainable soil management is a crucial component of agriculture and land use practices aimed at preserving soil health and fertility for current and future generations. It involves reducing the use of harmful chemicals such as fertilizers, plastics from agricultural inputs and pesticides, while promoting practices such as crop rotation, minimal tillage and the use of organic materials such as crop residues. These practices not only optimize soil conservation, but also contribute to increased soil organic matter content and improved water infiltration rates. The adoption of sustainable soil management practices is essential for achieving Sustainable Development Goals and addressing global challenges related to soil degradation, soil micro/macro-nutrient availability, micro(nano)plastics infiltration of soil and environmental sustainability. By focusing on practices that enhance soil fertility and quality, sustainable soil management can lead to increased agricultural productivity while minimizing negative impacts on biodiversity, water quality and air pollution. Furthermore, sustainable soil management practices play a crucial role in carbon sequestration, with the potential to mitigate climate change by enhancing soil organic carbon content through proper land management techniques.

Integrating production with ecosystem conservation is crucial for building resilient agroecosystems, ensuring sustainable development from both ecological and economic perspectives. Conservation agriculture (CA) practices such as mulching and animal manure have been identified as sustainable intensification methods that contribute to climate resilience. By promoting sustainable soil management, stakeholders can work towards harmonizing environmental, economic, and social goals to ensure the long-term health and productivity of soils. Additionally, adopting climate-smart agricultural practices like precision agriculture and agroforestry can mitigate greenhouse gas emissions while improving soil health and biodiversity, further contributing to agricultural resilience.

This Special Issue covers a wide range of research and reviews articles that will augment our understanding of this fascinating field of sustainable soil management and conservation agriculture research to raise awareness of sustainable agricultural practices such as soil conditioning, biomass conversion, crop rotation, intercropping, precision agriculture and agroforestry that can mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and facilitate the development of new strategies, methods and technologies for soil conservation within the agricultural ecosystem.

Dr. Chijioke Emenike
Dr. Temitope Ojo
Dr. Patricia Omo-Okoro
Dr. Lord Abbey
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.

Keywords

  • soil management
  • sustainability
  • soil nutrient
  • soil conservation
  • agricultural practices
  • soil health
  • climate change resilience

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

24 pages, 8784 KiB  
Article
The Impact of Organic Fertilizer Substitution on Microbial Community Structure, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, and Enzyme Activity in Soils with Different Cultivation Durations
by Yanke Guo, Changsheng Zhao, Xuzhen Liu, Yanan Dong, Wei Liu, Qingfeng Chen, Shigang Ding, Jing Zhang, Beibei Guo and Xinguo Gao
Sustainability 2025, 17(10), 4541; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17104541 - 16 May 2025
Viewed by 167
Abstract
To address soil degradation risk caused by the long-term application of organic and nitrogen fertilizers in facility vegetable fields, this study selected soils with cumulative cultivation durations of 1, 3, 6, and 9 years to investigate the impact of organic and nitrogen fertilizer [...] Read more.
To address soil degradation risk caused by the long-term application of organic and nitrogen fertilizers in facility vegetable fields, this study selected soils with cumulative cultivation durations of 1, 3, 6, and 9 years to investigate the impact of organic and nitrogen fertilizer (OFN) application ratios on soil microbial community structure, greenhouse gas emissions, and enzyme activities. The results show that SOC content increases with soil cultivation duration and the proportion of organic fertilizer applied. Organic fertilizer stimulates urease and catalase activities; however, NH4+-N in the soil inhibits enzyme activities. Organic fertilizer increases the abundance of Proteobacteria and Bacteroidota, enhancing its potential carbon sequestration capacity and also resulting in higher CH4 and CO2 emissions. The microbial community structure is influenced by both fertilizer ratios and soil cultivation duration. As the taxonomic level becomes finer, the number of differential species at the phylum (3), class (3), order (6), family (8), and genus (8) levels increases. The highest Chao1 index in soils of 1, 3, 6, and 9 years was observed at 0%, 25%, 50%, and 75% organic fertilizer substitution ratios, respectively. The 25% organic fertilizer substitution ratio showed better microbial diversity and evenness in 3-, 6-, and 9-year-old soils. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Soil Management: Conservation Strategies for Agricultural Resilience)
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21 pages, 13067 KiB  
Article
Significant Changes in Soil Properties in Arid Regions Due to Semicentennial Tillage—A Case Study of Tarim River Oasis, China
by Ying Xiao, Mingliang Ye, Jing Zhang, Yamin Chen, Xinxin Sun, Xiaoyan Li and Xiaodong Song
Sustainability 2025, 17(9), 4194; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17094194 - 6 May 2025
Viewed by 308
Abstract
Quantifying changes in soil properties greatly benefits our understanding of soil management and sustainable land use, especially in the context of strong anthropogenic activities and climate change. This study investigated the effects of long-term reclamation on soil properties in an artificial oasis region [...] Read more.
Quantifying changes in soil properties greatly benefits our understanding of soil management and sustainable land use, especially in the context of strong anthropogenic activities and climate change. This study investigated the effects of long-term reclamation on soil properties in an artificial oasis region with a cultivation history of more than 50 years. Critical soil properties were measured at 77 sites, and a total of 462 soil samples were collected down to a depth of 1 m, which captures both surface and subsurface processes that are critical for long-term cultivation effects. Thirteen critical soil properties were analyzed, among which four properties—soil organic carbon (SOC), total phosphorus (TP), pH, and ammonium nitrogen (NH4⁺)—were selected for detailed analysis due to their ecological significance and low intercorrelation. By comparing cultivated soils with nearby desert soils, this study found that semicentennial cultivation led to significant improvements in soil properties, including increased concentrations of SOC, NH4⁺, and TP, as well as reduced pH throughout the soil profile, indicating improved fertility and reduced alkalinity. Further analysis suggested that environmental factors—including temperature, clay content, evaporation differences between surface and subsurface layers, sparse vegetation cover, cotton root distribution, as well as prolonged irrigation and fertilization—collectively contributed to the enhancement of SOC decomposition and the reduction of soil alkalinity. Furthermore, three-dimensional digital soil mapping was performed to investigate the effects of long-term cultivation on the distributions of soil properties at unvisited sites. The soil depth functions were separately fitted to model the vertical variation in the soil properties, including the exponential function, power function, logarithmic function, and cubic polynomial function, and the parameters were extrapolated to unvisited sites via the quantile regression forest (QRF), boosted regression tree, and multiple linear regression techniques. The QRF technique yielded the best performance for SOC (R2 = 0.78 and RMSE = 0.62), TP (R2 = 0.79 and RMSE = 0.12), pH (R2 = 0.78 and RMSE = 0.10), and NH4+ (R2 = 0.71 and RMSE = 0.38). The results showed that depth function coupled with machine learning methods can predict the spatial distribution of soil properties in arid areas efficiently and accurately. These research conclusions will lead to more effective targeted measures and guarantees for local agricultural development and food security. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Soil Management: Conservation Strategies for Agricultural Resilience)
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15 pages, 1666 KiB  
Article
Detecting Soil Tillage in Portugal: Challenges and Insights from Rules-Based and Machine Learning Approaches Using Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 Data
by Tiago G. Morais, Tiago Domingos, João Falcão, Manuel Camacho, Ana Marques, Inês Neves, Hugo Lopes and Ricardo F. M. Teixeira
Sustainability 2024, 16(23), 10389; https://doi.org/10.3390/su162310389 - 27 Nov 2024
Viewed by 930
Abstract
Monitoring soil tillage activities, such as plowing and cultivating, is essential for aligning agricultural practices with environmental standards for soil health. Detecting these activities presents significant challenges, especially when relying on remotely sensed data. This paper addresses these challenges within the framework of [...] Read more.
Monitoring soil tillage activities, such as plowing and cultivating, is essential for aligning agricultural practices with environmental standards for soil health. Detecting these activities presents significant challenges, especially when relying on remotely sensed data. This paper addresses these challenges within the framework of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which requires EU countries to enhance their environmental monitoring and climate action efforts. We used remote sensing data from Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 missions to detect soil tillage practices in 73 test farms in Portugal. Three approaches were explored: a rule-based method and two machine learning techniques based on XGBoost (XGB). One machine learning approach utilized the original imbalanced dataset, while the other employed a SMOTE (Synthetic Minority Oversampling Technique) approach to balance underrepresented soil tillage operations within the training set. Our findings highlight the inherent difficulty in detecting soil tillage operations across all methods, though the XGB-SMOTE approach demonstrated the most promising results, achieving a recall of 67% and an AUC-ROC (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve) of 74%. These results underscore the need for further research to develop a fully automated detection model. This work has potential applications for monitoring compliance with CAP mandates and informing environmental policy to better support sustainable agricultural practices. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Soil Management: Conservation Strategies for Agricultural Resilience)
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