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Sustainable Soils: Perspectives on Soil Functioning in the Anthropocene

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 January 2023) | Viewed by 15193

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Raymond R. Weil

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Chief Guest Editor

Department of Environmental Science and Technology, University of Maryland, Maryland 20742, USA
Interests: soil health; soil fertility; soil conservation; soil organic matter; cropping systems; sustainable agriculture

Dr. Tessa Sophia van der Voort

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Assistant Guest Editor

Campus Fryslân, Groningen University, 8911 CE Leeuwarden, Netherlands
Interests: soil science; soil organic matter; environmental sciences; data science and sustainability

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Soils comprise some of the most complex and biologically diverse environments on earth. They underpin all terrestrial ecosystems and play crucial roles in human food security and the mitigation of climate change. However, land use change, climate change, and human mismanagement are physically, chemically, and biologically degrading earth’s soils. Therefore, it is paramount to build our knowledge of these complex and still insufficiently understood systems. It will be especially important to understand how increasingly severe droughts, intense precipitation events, and altered atmospheric interactions will impact soil behavior and resilience.

A greater understanding of the soil resource and how it can be more sustainably managed is a prerequisite to safeguarding the primary provisioning and regulating ecosystem services provided by soils. Therefore, understanding the role of soils in sustainability is critical not only to advance environmental science but also to inform societal action and government policy.

This Special Issue will examine:

Dependence of Global Sustainability on Ecosystem Services Provided by Soils
Soils and Food Security: sustainable agricultural practices
Soil as a Sink for Greenhouse Gases: decelerating or reversing climate change (e.g., by increasing soil stocks of organic and inorganic carbon)
Soils as a Source of Greenhouse Gases: accelerating climate change (e.g., emissions warming of permafrost thaw)
Soil Biodiversity: an undervalued component of global biodiversity and resilience
Water Quantity and Quality: soil impacts on the hydrological cycle.

Prof. Raymond R. Weil
Dr. Tessa Sophia van der Voort
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 sciences
soil biogeochemistry
sustainable soils
soil organic carbon
ecosystem services
agriculture
hydrology
biodiversity
climate change
nutrient pollution

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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17 pages, 2210 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Hedgerows on Crop Field Edges Increase Soil Carbon to a Depth of 1 meter

by Jessica L. Chiartas, Louise E. Jackson, Rachael F. Long, Andrew J. Margenot and Anthony T. O'Geen

Sustainability 2022, 14(19), 12901; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141912901 - 10 Oct 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3721

Abstract

Effective incentivization of soil carbon (C) storage as a climate mitigation strategy necessitates an improved understanding of management impacts on working farms. Using a regional survey on intensively managed farms, soil organic carbon (SOC) concentrations and stocks (0–100 cm) were evaluated in a pairwise comparison of long-term (10+ years) woody hedgerow plantings and adjacent crop fields in Yolo County, CA, USA. Twenty-one paired sites were selected to represent four soil types (Yolo silt loam, Brentwood clay loam, Capay silty clay, and Corning loam), with textures ranging from 16% to 51% clay. Soil C was higher in the upper 100 cm under hedgerows (14.4 kg m⁻²) relative to cultivated fields (10.6 kg m⁻²) and at all depths (0–10, 10–20, 20–50, 50–75, and 75–100 cm). The difference in SOC (3.8 kg m⁻²) did not vary by soil type, suggesting a broad potential for hedgerows to increase SOC stocks. Assuming adoption rates of 50 to 80% across California for hypothetical field edges of average-size farms, and an identical SOC sequestration potential across soil types, hedgerows could sequester 10.8 to 17.3 MMT CO₂e, or 7 to 12% of California’s annual greenhouse gas reduction goals. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Soils: Perspectives on Soil Functioning in the Anthropocene)

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32 pages, 5115 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Measuring the Supply of Ecosystem Services from Alternative Soil and Nutrient Management Practices: A Transdisciplinary, Field-Scale Approach

by Alissa White, Joshua W. Faulkner, David Conner, Lindsay Barbieri, E. Carol Adair, Meredith T. Niles, V. Ernesto Mendez and Cameron R. Twombly

Sustainability 2021, 13(18), 10303; https://doi.org/10.3390/su131810303 - 15 Sep 2021

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3399

Abstract

Farmers and policy makers pursue management practices that enhance water quality, increase landscape flood resiliency, and mitigate agriculture’s contribution to climate change, all while remaining economically viable. This study presents a holistic assessment of how two practices influence the supply of these ecosystem services—the use of an aerator prior to manure application in haylands, and the stacked use of manure injection, cover crops, and reduced tillage in corn silage production. Field data are contextualized by semi-structured interviews that identify influences on adoption. Causal loop diagrams then illustrate feedbacks from ecosystem services onto decision making. In our study, unseen nutrient pathways are the least understood, but potentially the most important in determining the impact of a practice on ecosystem services supply. Subsurface runoff accounted for 64% to 92% of measured hydrologic phosphorus export. Average soil surface greenhouse gas flux constituted 38% to 73% of all contributions to the equivalent CO₂ footprint of practices, sometimes outweighing carbon sequestration. Farmers identified interest in better understanding unseen nutrient pathways, expressed intrinsic stewardship motivations, but highlighted financial considerations as dominating decision making. Our analysis elevates the importance of financial supports for conservation, and the need for comprehensive understandings of agroecosystem performance that include hard-to-measure pathways. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Soils: Perspectives on Soil Functioning in the Anthropocene)

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Other

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14 pages, 2305 KiB

Open AccessPerspective

Redox Heterogeneity Entangles Soil and Climate Interactions

by Jared L. Wilmoth

Sustainability 2021, 13(18), 10084; https://doi.org/10.3390/su131810084 - 09 Sep 2021

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2398

Abstract

Interactions between soils and climate impact wider environmental sustainability. Soil heterogeneity intricately regulates these interactions over short spatiotemporal scales and therefore needs to be more finely examined. This paper examines how redox heterogeneity at the level of minerals, microbial cells, organic matter, and the rhizosphere entangles biogeochemical cycles in soil with climate change. Redox heterogeneity is used to develop a conceptual framework that encompasses soil microsites (anaerobic and aerobic) and cryptic biogeochemical cycling, helping to explain poorly understood processes such as methanogenesis in oxygenated soils. This framework is further shown to disentangle global carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) pathways that include CO₂, CH₄, and N₂O. Climate-driven redox perturbations are discussed using wetlands and tropical forests as model systems. Powerful analytical methods are proposed to be combined and used more extensively to study coupled abiotic and biotic reactions that are affected by redox heterogeneity. A core view is that emerging and future research will benefit substantially from developing multifaceted analyses of redox heterogeneity over short spatiotemporal scales in soil. Taking a leap in our understanding of soil and climate interactions and their evolving influence on environmental sustainability then depends on greater collaborative efforts to comprehensively investigate redox heterogeneity spanning the domain of microscopic soil interfaces. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Soils: Perspectives on Soil Functioning in the Anthropocene)

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25 pages, 2437 KiB

Open AccessPerspective

Soils and Beyond: Optimizing Sustainability Opportunities for Biochar

by Danielle L. Gelardi and Sanjai J. Parikh

Sustainability 2021, 13(18), 10079; https://doi.org/10.3390/su131810079 - 09 Sep 2021

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 4595

Abstract

Biochar is most commonly considered for its use as a soil amendment, where it has gained attention for its potential to improve agricultural production and soil health. Twenty years of near exponential growth in investigation has demonstrated that biochar does not consistently deliver these benefits, due to variables in biochar, soil, climate, and cropping systems. While biochar can provide agronomic improvements in marginal soils, it is less likely to do so in temperate climates and fertile soils. Here, biochar and its coproducts may be better utilized for contaminant remediation or the substitution of nonrenewable or mining-intensive materials. The carbon sequestration function of biochar, via conversion of biomass to stable forms of carbon, does not depend on its incorporation into soil. To aid in the sustainable production and use of biochar, we offer two conceptual decision trees, and ask: What do we currently know about biochar? What are the critical gaps in knowledge? How should the scientific community move forward? Thoughtful answers to these questions can push biochar research towards more critical, mechanistic investigations, and guide the public in the smart, efficient use of biochar which extracts maximized benefits for variable uses, and optimizes its potential to enhance agricultural and environmental sustainability. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Soils: Perspectives on Soil Functioning in the Anthropocene)

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