We used synchrotron-based X-ray computed tomography (SRXCT) to visualize root distribution in soil cores. X-ray CT is emerging as a leading technique to study plant roots, but SRXCT offers potential advantages compared with conventional X-ray sources, including producing X-rays of higher intensity that are collimated, monochromatic and tuneable; delivering high-resolution data whilst avoiding issues

Microbial necromass is a vital component of soil organic carbon (SOC) stock and substantially influences soil carbon cycling. The responses of microbial necromass carbon (MNC) in coastal wetland soils to global climate warming and the factors influencing these responses, however, remain largely unclear. In the present study, a 4-year field warming experiment (+1.5 °C) was conducted with open-top chambers

Carbon cycling in permafrost peatlands is strongly influenced by both hydrology and temperature and is closely linked to microtopography. In this study, we assessed soil temperature regimes in the sporadic permafrost zone of Western Siberia, one of the most climate-sensitive regions currently undergoing dramatic changes. Based on topographic mapping, photogrammetry, soil, vegetation and thermometric

Recently, the QuantiSlakeTest (QST) was developed which records mass loss or gain of intact soil samples during submergence, but it is yet unclear how slaking relates quantitatively to soil structure. This study was set up to determine if the QST can be a quick and cost-effective alternative to established structure tests and can be linked to soil porosity, determined by the soil water retention curve

Soil water repellency (SWR) is a natural process and affects water dynamics from nano to ecosystem scales. However, the spatial distribution of SWR at the ecosystem scale, as well as the underlying drivers across diverse habitats, land uses and soil textures, remain underexplored. This study presents a comprehensive survey of SWR in Denmark and its predicted spatial distribution, using approximately

Thermokarst lakes (TLs) and retrogressive thaw slumps (RTSs) are common thermokarst landscapes that play a crucial role in regulating hydrology, ecology, and biogeochemical elements in permafrost regions. However, how TLs, as water accumulation units, affect regional water imbalances remains unclear, and whether the slow movement of shallow soil material from RTSs disrupts ecosystem barriers is still

Electromagnetic (EM) sensors are widely used to measure soil water content for different applications. The dielectric response of soil over the operational frequency of EM sensors in the megahertz to gigahertz range can be affected by a number of factors other than soil water content. It is therefore beneficial to examine the measurement frequency of sensors, for better understanding the sensor output

Phytate, the most abundant organic P compound in soils, cannot be used as a P source by plants without first being hydrolyzed. However, the effect of soil properties on its effect as a P source to plants is not yet well understood. This study aimed to assess the efficiency of phytate as a P source for plants depending on soil properties.

Soil structure is a key feature in controlling the turnover of organic matter in soils. The spatial arrangement of solids and pores in agricultural topsoil can be actively influenced by management practices, such as tillage and cropping systems, which in turn can affect the resident microbial communities and their activities. However, carbon mineralisation and microbial activity are usually measured

Urea is the most widely used synthetic fertilizer worldwide, covering 16% of fertilizer consumption in Germany in 2022. It has a notable propensity to release nitrogen (N) in the form of ammonia (NH3) when applied to soil, contributing to environmental pollution, and indirectly increasing nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions. This loss of NH3 from urea also represents a loss of N for crop production. Consequently

Despite large phosphorus (P) reserves in subtropical forest soils, P limitation can be exacerbated by elevated atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition. However, the mechanisms underlying how soil P fraction transformation affects P availability and the key factors that regulate this process under long-term N and/or P addition remain unclear. In this study, in a subtropical forest subjected to 13 years

Soil nematodes are regulated by soil moisture, with a global aridity threshold identified for total nematode diversity. Nitrogen (N) deposition also influences soil nematodes, but its effect on their aridity threshold remains unclear. Here, we synthesized 403 paired observations from 101 global N addition studies to investigate how N enrichment regulates nematode abundance and diversity along the aridity

Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) is a paramount soil attribute for climate regulation, soil fertility, and agricultural productivity. The global demand for SOC testing came in response to expanding soil management practices aimed at ensuring soil health. This study explores enhanced accuracy in predicting SOC using soil spectroscopy (proximal sensing). A Soil Spectral Library (SSL), made from 127 soil profiles

Plant litter decomposition plays a vital role in soil carbon (C) cycling and nutrient release, significantly influencing agricultural resource utilization and soil fertility management. Litter quality—defined by its C, nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) contents, as well as C:N:P stoichiometry—is a key factor regulating its decomposition. However, the influence of litter C:P ratios on plant litter decomposition

Nitrogen-fixing shrubs have been planted worldwidely due to their excellent performances in soil improvement and economic benefits. However, their role and mechanisms on soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration are unclear. In this paper, a field experiment in plantations of Caragana korshinskii and meta-analysis were conducted to investigate the effects of planting nitrogen-fixing shrubs on SOC accumulation

While conservation farming practices are known to increase soil health and ecosystem functioning, little is known about their effect on nutrient availability. In this study, we conducted an on-farm evaluation of conservation farming advances in plant-available and replenishable macro- and micronutrients.

Olive orchards in marginal Mediterranean regions are often cultivated on shallow soils over sloping terrain, with extensive bare ground between tree canopies, leading to severe soil degradation. Implementing management practices that enhance nature-based processes (NBS) is crucial for reversing this trend. Developing simple yet sensitive indicators to assess the impact of these practices on soil quality

Land-use change and duration of agricultural practice cause shifts in the soil physical structure and porosity. These changes, in turn, may hamper soil aeration, restrict gas exchange, and therefore, cause establishment of anoxic conditions in upland soils. Such periodic fluctuations of aeration control the activity of microbial extracellular hydrolytic enzymes. Earlier studies revealed a clear suppression

Monoculture farming streamlines field equipment use and increases the efficiency of planting and harvesting, but at the same time, exacerbates the severity of soilborne diseases. Disease-suppressive soils are an effective and sustainable resource for managing soilborne diseases in monoculture systems. However, the evolution and mechanisms of soil suppressiveness remain elusive, limiting the broader

Hand-feel soil texture observations (HFST) are less accurate, yet much more numerous, than laboratory measurements of soil texture (LAST). Therefore, it is tempting to incorporate both LAST and HFST information as calibration data in digital soil mapping (DSM) of particle-size distribution. We used about 1000 LASTs and 15,000 HFSTs over an area of about 6,800 km2. We incorporated the uncertainties

It has been well established that for consistent soil organic carbon stock (SOCS) monitoring over time, the SOCS must be determined in an equivalent soil mass (ESM) layer rather than a depth layer. This work focused on the single-layer ESM method, its cost, accuracy and simplification. With the objective of simplifying ESM method and reducing costs, we sampled 393 fields in western Switzerland and

Understanding the dynamics of dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) in the vineyard’s soil is crucial for nitrogen (N) management in this agroecosystem. This study investigated the kinetics and dynamics of DON, including underlying microbial mechanisms, in the soil profile of an irrigated Merlot vineyard in the Okanagan Valley, BC, Canada. Biennial treatments from 2011 to 2018 included wood-based mulch

Tidal marshes in estuaries store large amounts of soil organic carbon (SOC) and are dominated by the interaction of tidal inundation and salinity with biotic ecosystem components, leading to strong spatio-temporal heterogeneity. Little is known how these estuarine conditions affect SOC stabilization. Our aim was to assess (i) SOC stocks, (ii) SOC stabilization mechanisms (aggregation and mineral-association)

Precise monitoring of soil organic carbon (SOC) is urgently needed in agricultural regions to tackle global challenges like food security, water regulation, land degradation, and climate change. Remote sensing technology has emerged as a powerful method for detecting variations in SOC at localized scales. However, its application on a broader, national scale faces limitations, especially in countries

Agricultural soils are the main source of anthropogenic N2O emissions to the atmosphere. To effectively mitigate these emissions there is a need to understand the interactions between potential drivers under field conditions. We conducted an incubation experiment with intact soil cores adjusted to one of four matric potentials (−15, −30, −50 or −100 hPa). We measured the relative gas diffusivity (Dp/Do)

Microbial adaptive evolution and regulation strategies response to carbon (C) heterogeneity in paddy fields at large spatial scales remain poorly understood. Here, we employed gene- and genomic-centric metagenomic approaches to explore soil microbial biogeographic patterns and functional traits regulating C metabolisms across 120 soils derived from 30 paddy fields in Chinese Mollisols. Our findings

Alpine meadow soils in tectonically active High Mountain Asia (HMA) are highly vulnerable, playing a critical role in the fragile ecosystems of Earth’s “Third Pole”. Understanding the formation and distribution of these soils is essential, yet the mechanisms governing their thickness remain unclear. To address this, we applied a multi-resolution (0.25–30.00 m) stochastic approach to predict soil thickness

Understanding how soil biodiversity, especially of macrofauna like earthworms, responds to land-use intensity is crucial for developing sustainable land-use strategies. This work is a two-year field investigation of earthworm community responses to increasing land-use intensity, from undisturbed fallow land to actively cultivated agricultural lands (including fallow land, tea plantation, orange plantation

Soil spectroscopy has emerged as a key technique for rapid, non-destructive soil property prediction, yet the centralized nature of the training of machine learning models raises concerns around data privacy, accessibility, and transferability. This study proposes the application of Federated Learning (FL) as a decentralized approach to soil spectroscopy, enabling collaboration between multiple data

Soil organic carbon (SOC) mineralization, driven by soil microbial communities, plays a crucial role in the global carbon cycle. However, the temperature sensitivity of microbial preferences for SOC substrates remains poorly understood, limiting our ability to predict SOC dynamics under climate change. Here we combined bacterial community profiling, laboratory incubations, and a pool-based carbon model

The proportion of fine mineral particles in soils is a broadly used predictor of soil organic carbon (SOC) storage based on the potential enhancement of organo-mineral associations with increasing mineral surface area. However, the influence of increasing fine fraction content on SOC pools remain understudied in high clay soils (>50 % clay). We investigated SOC storage across paired native and cropped

Nitrification inhibitors (NIs) are widely used to mitigate nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from agricultural soils. However, its efficiency is highly uncertain owing to varying environmental conditions and still-debated inhibition mechanisms, especially the responses of the nitrifiers and denitrifiers responsible for N2O production. Here, we conducted microcosm incubations to investigate the comparative

To predict future changes in nutrient availability in the young soils of the tropical Andes, it is important to study the response of weathering rates to climate and land-use change. This is particularly true in highly biodiverse tropical forests, where increasing nutrient availability can threaten their biodiversity. Hence, our objectives were to compare the kinetics of element release by weathering

Proximal soil sensing data usually require calibration to extract meaningful information, e.g. for precision agriculture. For optimal application, calibration modeling is typically based on reference data collected from field-wise sampling. However, this approach is neither time- nor cost-effective and hinders the adoption of proximal soil sensing in practical agriculture. Thus, minimizing calibration

Frozen-ground environments represent one of the most fragile ecosystems in the source areas of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers (SAYYR), characterized by persistently low temperatures and slow decomposition of soil organic matter, which sustains substantial soil organic carbon reserves. As climate warming intensifies, ecological stressors in the SAYYR increasingly threaten soil conditions. However, research

Soil nutrients are essential for ecosystem function and food production. However, the long-term dynamics and ecological drivers of soil macro- and microelements, as well as their relationships, remain virtually unknown, especially in varying precipitation contexts. Here, we conducted a long-term experiment in typical steppes to explore the universal and differential mechanisms of soil macro- and microelements

Introducing legumes into grasslands can enhance soil organic carbon (SOC) storage, but high phosphorus (P) requirement of legume nitrogen (N) fixation may accelerate soil P depletion. As a result, P fertilizers are often applied to improve legume performance. However, the effects of legume introduction and P availability on SOC storage in grasslands remain poorly understood. In this study, we investigated

Mineral–organic matter (OM) studies have predominantly focused on acidic soils that are abundant in iron (Fe) oxides and aluminum (Al) oxides. We have probed mineral–OM interactions in an alkaline or calcareous soil of the Aridisols class. Unlike the role of Fe and Al, the role of Ca-minerals (particularly calcite), which are ubiquitous in alkaline soils, in OM sequestration is not well understood

Earthworms play crucial roles in regulating soil organic carbon (SOC) and greenhouse gas emissions in forest soils. Laboratory studies have proven that they promote soil carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. However, the effects of earthworm activity on forest soil CO2 emissions and organic carbon (C) have not yet been quantified in situ, and the impact of different earthworm densities remain unclear. In

Due to global warming, temperate salt marshes (e.g., Spartina alterniflora and Juncus roemerianus) are being overtaken by poleward migrating mangroves (e.g., Avicennia germinans and Rhizophora mangle). While bulk soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks have been widely compared across mangrove and salt marsh habitats, differentiation of SOC derived from leaves and roots of each mangrove and salt marsh species

A series of vegetation restoration programs (VRPs) have been implemented on the Loess Plateau, China to increase vegetation cover and soil organic carbon (SOC) content. Here, we used a Coupled Litter-Soil (CLS) model to estimate the spatiotemporal distribution of SOC change (0–100 cm) on the VRPs areas on the Loess Plateau from the vegetation restoration starting to 2100. The vertical transport process

The freeze state of near-surface soil is crucial for regional hydrology, ecosystems, and infrastructure, yet its discontinuous nature remains largely unknown. This research addresses this gap by employing soil temperatures at a depth of 5 cm from 335 meteorological stations across China, introducing three novel indicators—continuous freeze frequency, freeze fragmentation index, and freeze continuity

Agricultural soil microbiomes, with their varied cell sizes and metabolic capabilities, contribute significantly to differences in soil ecosystem functions and services. However, the relationships among bacterial cell size, community structure and nutrient turnover in agricultural soils remain unclear. This study categorized bacterial cells from maize and soybean fields into five distinct size fractions—F1

Soil inorganic carbon (SIC) dominates the soil carbon pools in semi-arid and arid areas globally. Variations in the SIC pool would substantially affect the atmospheric CO2 concentrations. The rapid and accurate measurement of SIC content using visible near-infrared (Vis-NIR) spectroscopy is of high significance for the management of soil carbon pools in semi-arid and arid regions. Ensemble learning

An adequate response to the ecological challenges associated with the traditional peatland management and corresponding site-specific measures require spatial information on soil properties and functions, most of which are related to the degree of peat decomposition. Our laboratory study tests the expectation that NMR relaxometry provides simple and rapidly available proxies characterising the decomposition

Applying molybdenum (Mo) fertilizer can improve soil phosphorus (P) bioavailability, reduce the need for P fertilizers in agriculture, and enhance crop growth. However, the precise mechanisms behind these benefits are not yet fully understood. For the first time, we demonstrate the impact of Mo application on the transformation of P forms, metabolites, and microorganisms in the soybean rhizosphere

The glomalin-related soil protein (GRSP), produced by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, plays a critical role in soil organic carbon (SOC) storage and stabilization across terrestrial ecosystems. We examined the effects of four contrasting land-use types (bare land, cropland, grassland, and woodland) originating from the same soil matrix on GRSP dynamics, soil aggregation, and SOC accumulation. We found

Iron (Fe) plaque on rice roots can enhance nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from paddy soil, primarily through Fe(II) oxidation-coupled denitrification. In this study, our hypothesis is that biochar will reduce N2O emissions via an electron shuttle and complete denitrification. To test this hypothesis, we performed laboratory microcosm experiments using a paddy soil-Fe plaque system amended with biochar

Soil pH is the master variable of soil properties and understanding its spatiotemporal changes in situ is key to unveiling numerous biogeochemical processes. The development of non-invasive imaging techniques provides the possibility to visualize and localize soil pH changes depending on various factors, e.g. fertilization and climate. Herein, the optodes pH mapping system was used to study the effects

Information on soil aggregate stability (SAS) is essential for assessing ecosystem services and scaling up soil erosion models. The global contributions of environmental factors (e.g., soil properties, topography, and climate) on SAS at a specific spatial scale are extensively documented. However, the scale- and location-specific controls of these factors are poorly understood. Here, using 2,238 topsoil

Phosphorus (P) mobilization by soil microorganisms plays a crucial role in determining the fertility and productivity of terrestrial ecosystems, yet the synthesis of impact of fertilization strategies on this process remains poorly understood. To fill this knowledge gap, we conducted a meta-analysis of 1082 observations from 85 independent fertilization experiments to evaluate how the abundance and

Understanding the presence and dynamics of soil inorganic carbon (SIC) is essential, given its role as a significant sink for atmospheric carbon within the global carbon cycle. In arid and semi-arid regions such as Australia, soils may contain a higher proportion of SIC compared to soil organic carbon (SOC). However, the relative magnitudes of SIC and SOC in these areas remain unclear. This study resolves

Earthworms influence soil carbon (C) sequestration by modulating the balance between plant residue C incorporation and soil C mineralization below ground. The knowledge of the prolonged effects and backstaging mechanisms of C sequestration by earthworms belonging to different ecological groups in no-tillage (NT) and conventional tillage (CT) agroecosystems is still surprisingly sketchy. Therefore,

In the mid-latitudes, precipitation regimes are becoming more persistent, with longer consistently dry and rainy periods. Such a rise in precipitation regime persistence (PRP) – defined as the length of consecutive dry or wet periods – could significantly affect soil properties and their role in soil–plant-water relationships. To investigate these effects, we conducted a 16-month outdoor grassland

Carbon-nitrogen coupling is important to maintain various functions in forest ecosystems and is thus, an important indicator of forest ecosystem health. However, the magnitude of this indicator’s importance to environmental changes remains virtually unknown, especially for deep soils across vegetation types. In this study, four representative sites, namely Pinus tabulaeformis forest, Robinia pseudoacacia

The Soil and Landscape Grid of Australia (SLGA) has been significantly updated and expanded. The initial version, released in 2015, provided the first continental-scale characterization of soil resources adhering to GlobalSoilMap specifications. It featured digital maps for 11 key soil attributes (including bulk density, organic carbon, soil texture, pH, available water capacity, total nitrogen, total