The European Turfgrass Society's (ETS) 7th Research Conference was scheduled to be held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, from 29 June to 1 July 2020. The meeting was intended to follow past conferences held in Italy (2008), France (2010), Norway (2012), Germany (2014), Portugal (2016), and United Kingdom (2018). The theme of this year's conference, “Turf Solutions for the Future”, was selected to highlight a movement towards the sustainable management of all green spaces. However, the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus COVID‐19 that led to a global pandemic has resulted in travel bans, quarantines, and social distancing that have required the postponement or cancellation of large meetings and gatherings. Consequently, the ETS board decided to cancel the 7^th European Turfgrass Society Research Conference. However, manuscripts of presentations were already submitted and under review, therefore the ETS board has decided to proceed with the publication of the abstracts and research reports.

Modern turfgrass research is no longer aimed at investigating strategies to maintain golf courses and athletic fields at the highest quality level under the assumption that limitless resources are available. Research projects now focus on reducing inputs and studying sustainable approaches to manage public greenspaces, for which turfgrasses play a major role as groundcovers. Similar to our past conferences, the objective of this year's meeting is to promote a holistic view of turfgrass areas, particularly with respect to how they affect and enhance the living quality of urban and peri‐urban dwellers. Other objectives include facilitating research collaborations, sharing knowledge, and providing a forum to disseminate relevant and science‐based information to its members and the public at large.

The papers submitted for publication and for presentation at this year's conference covered a variety of topics from speakers representing several countries. Presentations are summarized either as short abstracts, which will be published in a special edition of the European Journal of Turfgrass Science, or are published in this special issue of Agronomy Journal. A total of 26 manuscripts were submitted to Agronomy Journal, of which 15 were accepted for publication after the peer review process. Topics covered in this issue include turfgrass morphology (Pease, Thoms, Arora, & Christians, 2020), sod production (Griffith et al., 2020), turfgrass performance affected by management approaches (Dalsgaard, Thoms, Christians, Mertz, & Horton, 2020; Miller & Brotherton, 2020; Schiavon, Mock, Stowell, & Baird, 2020), and carbon accumulation in rootzone layers (Evers, de Kroon, Visser, & de Caluwe, 2020). Topics also include the effect of fertilization on establishment (Lindsey, Thoms, & Christians, 2020; Øgaard & Aamlid, 2020) and maintenance strategies for disease control (Hempfling, Murphy, & Clarke, 2020; Mattox et al., 2020; Mattox, Kowalewski, & McDonald, 2020; Mattox, Kowalewski, McDonald, Lambrinos, & Pscheidt, 2020). Findings on turfgrass performance under different irrigation strategies are reported by Serena et al. (2020) and Dyer et al. (2020). We would like to thank Dr. John Stier, University of Tennessee, and Dr. Mike Richardson, University of Arkansas, who served as editors for this special issue. We would like to also thank the Associate Editors and the numerous anonymous reviewers who provided valuable input. Without their help, this special issue would not have been possible.

欧洲草坪草协会（ETS）第七次研究会议定于2020年6月29日至7月1日在荷兰阿姆斯特丹举行。该会议的目的是追随过去在意大利（2008），法国（2010），挪威举行的会议（2012），德国（2014），葡萄牙（2016）和英国（2018）。选择了本年度会议的主题“面向未来的草坪解决方案”，以强调朝着所有绿色空间可持续管理的方向发展。但是，导致全球大流行的新型冠状病毒COVID-19的迅速传播导致旅行禁令，隔离和社会疏远，这要求推迟或取消大型会议和聚会。因此，ETS董事会决定取消^第七届欧洲草坪草学会研究会议。但是，演示文稿的手稿已经提交并正在审查中，因此，ETS董事会决定继续出版摘要和研究报告。

现代草皮草的研究不再旨在研究在没有可用资源的前提下将高尔夫球场和运动场保持在最高质量水平的策略。现在的研究项目着重于减少投入并研究可持续的方法来管理公共绿地，在这些公共绿地中，草皮草是主要的地被植物。与我们以往的会议类似，本次会议的目的是促进对草皮地区的整体看法，尤其是在它们如何影响和提高城市和郊区居民的生活质量方面。其他目标包括促进研究合作，共享知识，以及提供一个论坛向其成员和广大公众传播相关的，基于科学的信息。

提交发表并在今年会议上发表的论文涵盖了来自多个国家的演讲者的各种主题。演讲被总结为简短摘要，将发表在《欧洲草坪草科学杂志》的特别版中，或者发表在《农业学报》的这一期特刊上。共有26份手稿被提交给《农学期刊》，其中15篇经同行评审后被接受发表。本期涵盖的主题包括草皮形态（Pease，Thoms，Arora和Christians，2020年），草皮生产（Griffith等人，2020年）），草皮草的性能受管理方法的影响（Dalsgaard，Thoms，Christians，Mertz和Horton，2020年; Miller和Brotherton，2020年; Schiavon，Mock，Stowell和Baird，2020年）以及根区层中的碳积累（Evers，de Kroon，Visser和de Caluwe，2020年）。主题还包括施肥对机构的影响（Lindsey，Thoms，and Christians，2020 ;Øgaard＆Aamlid，2020）和疾病控制的维持策略（Hempfling，Murphy，＆Clarke，2020 ; Mattox等，2020 ; Mattox，科沃莱夫斯基（Kowalewski）和麦当劳（McDonald），2020年；马托克斯（Matox），科瓦洛斯基（Kowalewski），麦当劳（McDonald），兰布雷诺斯（Lambrinos）和普沙伊特（Pscheidt），2020）。Serena等人报道了在不同灌溉策略下草皮草性能的发现。（2020）和代尔等。（2020年）。我们要感谢田纳西大学的John Stier博士和阿肯色大学的Mike Richardson博士，他们是本期特刊的编辑。我们还要感谢助理编辑和众多匿名评论者，他们提供了宝贵的意见。没有他们的帮助，这个特殊问题将不可能实现。