Soil degradation represents a serious threat to the global environment and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs; Amundson et al., 2015; FAO, 2011; UNCCD, 2017). Sustainable soil management is called for by a wide range of stakeholders (Bryan et al., 2018; FAO, 2015; Hou et al., 2020). In recent years, biochar application has been proposed as a green and innovative solution for achieving multiple goals towards sustainable soil use and management, including carbon sequestration, heavy metal immobilization, and soil health enhancement (Hou, 2020; Lehmann et al., 2011).

Biochar is made from the pyrolysis of biomass under an oxygen‐limited environment. The concept was brought up only about a decade ago, but its actual usage can date back to pre‐Columbian Amazonians (Wang, Ok, et al., 2020). Since the emergence of the concept in 2006, the number of publications regarding the usage of biochar in soil has increased exponentially (see Figure 1), with a search in Web of Science Core Collections returning 2,756 results for 2019 alone, and average increasing rate at 29% over the past 5 years. It is also interesting to note that biochar application in soil is increasingly linked to sustainable development and sustainability. Pertaining literature increased by 108% from 2018 to 2019. However, the sustainability considerations seem to have originated from fragmented considerations of specific disciplinary angles. The more holistic concept of sustainable soil management has rarely been mentioned in these studies.

To fill this gap, our editorial team at the journal of Soil Use and Management is commissioning a virtual special issue (VSI) with the topic of ‘Biochar and Sustainable Soil Management’. So far we have collected 15 papers, covering topics including (a) new trends in biochar research; (b) the effect of biochar on greenhouse gas emission and soil carbon sequestration; (c) the effect of biochar addition on nutrient retention and crop yield; (d) the use of biochar in remediation of heavy metal contaminated soil and land reclamation; and (e) the effect of biochar on physicochemical and biological properties of soil. We intend to keep updating this VSI and continuously collect high‐quality biochar research papers that fall under the umbrella of sustainable soil management.

土壤退化对全球环境和联合国可持续发展目标（SDGs； Amundson等人，2015年；粮农组织，  2011年；《荒漠化公约》，  2017年）构成了严重威胁 。广泛的利益相关者呼吁可持续土壤管理（Bryan等，  2018； FAO，  2015； Hou等，  2020）。近年来，生物炭的应用已被提出为一种绿色创新的解决方案，旨在实现可持续的土壤利用和管理的多个目标，包括固碳，重金属固定化和土壤健康改善（Hou，  2020； Lehmann等，  2011）。 。

生物炭是在氧气受限的环境下由生物质的热解制得的。该概念仅在大约十年前提出，但其实际使用可以追溯到哥伦布时期以前的亚马逊人（Wang，Ok等，2020年）。）。自从2006年提出该概念以来，有关土壤中生物炭使用量的出版物数量呈指数增长（见图1），其中Web of Science核心合集的搜索仅在2019年就返回了2,756个结果，并且平均增长率为在过去5年中占29％。有趣的是，生物炭在土壤中的应用越来越与可持续发展和可持续性联系在一起。从2018年到2019年，相关文献的数量增加了108％。但是，可持续性的考虑似乎源自特定学科角度的零散考虑。这些研究很少提及可持续土壤管理的整体概念。

为了填补这一空白，我们在《土壤利用与管理》杂志上的编辑团队正在委托撰写虚拟特别期刊（VSI），主题为“生物炭和可持续土壤管理”。到目前为止，我们已经收集了15篇论文，涉及的主题包括：（a）生物炭研究的新趋势；（b）生物炭对温室气体排放和土壤碳固存的影响；（c）添加生物炭对养分保留和作物产量的影响；（d）使用生物炭修复重金属污染的土壤和开垦土地；（e）生物炭对土壤理化和生物学特性的影响。我们打算不断更新此VSI，并不断收集属于可持续土壤管理框架的高质量生物炭研究论文。