Soil Management for Maximizing Carbon Sequestration: Potential for Sustainable Soil Conservation

Dear Colleagues,

We kindly invite you to submit your research for publication to the Special Issue (SI) “Soil Management for Maximizing Carbon Sequestration: Potential for Sustainable Soil Conservation".
Climate change is becoming more evident nowadays. The increase in temperature together with the increase in atmospheric CO2 can have multiple effects on soil–plant systems. The fast development of plant biomass favors the accumulation of carbon in soil and, at the same time, promotes the release of carbon into the atmosphere through biotic and abiotic mineralization processes. Soil has recently been recognized as an important sink for atmospheric CO2. In the process of sequestering carbon, it is essential that the carbon stays within the plant–soil continuum for a long time, reducing its release into the atmosphere to a minimum. Variations in short- and long-term management and ultimately land-use (LU) changes influence the movement of C between these different pools. However, a better understanding of the interactions between management and the intrinsic characteristics of soil remains a knowledge gap that needs to be disentangled to understand the processes that regulate future CO₂ concentrations in the atmosphere. 

This Special Issue (SI) aims to compile work on a few unanswered topics related to the long-term sequestration capacity of soil C, and the mechanisms of C transformation and movement within various pools in the soil–plant system (animals, plants, microorganisms, gaseous compounds, etc.); the links between these mechanisms and long- and short-term management interventions or LU changes aimed at protecting/increasing soil carbon stocks; the identification of tools; sustainable management practices or strategies to favor long-term carbon sequestration; and efficient nutrient cycling.

We invite you to contribute scientific experimental studies or data papers (e.g., meta-analyses) that focus on subjects including, but not limited to, carbon cycling and sequestration; its spatial and temporal variabilities, including on the soil–plant continuum; and the responses of carbon sequestration and cycling to management, and environmental or human disturbances in natural and semi-natural systems.

Dr. Giulia Bondi
Dr. Eleonora Peruzzi
Guest Editors

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