Background: Increasing nitrogen (N) plant uptake efficiency may result in better plant quality and growth, less N susceptible to leaching and potential contamination to surrounding environments. Soil surfactants have been documented to increase water infiltration and enhance water uniformity throughout the soil profile. Thus, applying a surfactant may increase N uptake and use efficiency.

Background: Excessive application of nitrogen (N) fertilizer in cereal crops not only decreases the N use efficiency but also accelerates greenhouse gas (GHG) emission.

Background: Foliar application is mainly used in agriculture as a targeted top‐up application to prevent deficiencies or during anthesis to improve quality. Hence, foliar fertilization usually occurs in plants that are in good condition and capable of uptake through the leaf. However, the extent to which plants utilize a nutrient under conditions of deficiency is also of importance.

Aims: High maize yields in modern well‐managed agroecosystems depend on the use of elite varieties and hybrids. Unfortunately, because of repeated selection at high fertilizer rates, some beneficial traits, such as the interaction with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi or the release of organic acid anions for phosphate mobilization and for attracting beneficial microorganisms, might be gradually declining

Mucilage is a hydrogel exuded at root tips, which can hold large amounts of water but turns hydrophobic once dried. It is very challenging to understand the interplay of these opposite mechanisms and to incorporated them into hydraulic soil models. My summary of experimental and modelling approaches and observations at various scales is meant to help improving soil–plant water dynamic models and may

Background: Poor utilization of urea fertilizer and N losses from agriculture lands demands alternate fertilization practices to reduce N losses and improve utilization, i.e., application of nitrification inhibitors.

Background: The soils under continuous rice monocropping are currently facing a serious threat of accelerated soil and environmental quality degradation.

Background: Direct plant uptake of organic nitrogen (N) may be important for plant N nutrition, but we lack knowledge of how the concentration and form of external N influence organic N uptake and plant N status.

Background: Under the background of drought and nitrogen deposition, global climate change is changing the supply of resources and environmental conditions that are crucial to plant growth, and plants respond to climate change by environmentally induced phenotypic changes.

Background and aims: Phosphorus (P) is an essential element for crop growth. However, while links of P turnover in soils to carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) availability have been described, it remains to be clarified how combinations of fertilizer C and N additions affect stocks and cycling of distinct P fractions at different soil depths. The objectives of our study were (1) to assess how soil total P

Humans act at worldwide scale as a growing geomorphic agent since mid‐Holocene (8,200–4,200 y BP) through the pervasive impacts of domestication, deforestation, agriculture, urbanization, and mining. The concept of Anthropocene has been introduced exactly to indicate the timespan in which humans have joined with other natural forces in impacting the outermost shell of the planet and the biosphere.

Background: Salinity is one of the main threats that can cause crop yield losses by limiting plant growth. Several important cultivated crops including wheat exhibit sensitivity to salt stress by severe yield reductions. Approaches to improve salt resistance are critical for improved food production in the future.

Background: In recent times, also in compliance with several sustainable agriculture rules, the use of soil conditioners, such as zeolites, progressively increased. Zeolites are minerals characterized by unique physical‐chemical properties, which make them able to control the mobility of water, ammonium and other cations in soils. As zeolites do not exhaust their properties over time, it would be appropriate

Background: Blends of controlled‐release and slow‐release urea may help to synchronize N release from fertilizers and N uptake by maize to improve the plant nitrogen use efficiency.

Background: Adequate regulation of plant nutrients may constitute a promising approach to overcome the deleterious effects of salinity on plant growth and development. Among these nutrients, nitrogen (N) can be a stand out option to improve plant adaptation to saline environment. However, plant response to N under salinity stress may vary depending upon NH 4 + : NO 3 - ratio in the growth medium.

Background and aims: The concepts of critical nitrogen (N) concentration and nitrogen nutrition index (NNI) provide effective tools for assessing the N nutritional status of pastoral systems. However, no conclusive data exist concerning the effects of stubble height at harvest on the N dilution curve [N concentration (N%) = a(biomass)−b] and mixed species cultivation on N nutritional status of forage

Background: Diversified food crop production systems with high‐value vegetable crops are increasingly replacing conventional rice–wheat rotations across Nepal. These newly emerging systems are likely to enhance the demand for the micro‐nutrients boron (B) and zinc (Zn), which are already widely deficient throughout in Nepal. However, B and Zn fertilizers often are either unavailable in rural areas

Background: Carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) assimilate availability and their ratios are crucial for maize grain production and N‐use efficiency.

Aims: This study was initiated to evaluate different responses of sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) genotypes to sparingly soluble phosphorus (P) treatments and to identify useful plant traits contributing to P efficiency for the selection of efficient and responsive genotypes.

Background: Optimal wheat straw management in paddy fields is important for evaluating soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics and sustaining soil quality.

Background: Little is known about the relationship between plant availability of P in different sludges and their derived ashes, its development over time and its interaction with soil pH.

Background: Water and nitrogen (N) are essential resources influencing plant growth and yield. To improve their efficiencies in crop production is challenging because the physiological mechanisms of water and N coupling and their interactive effect on crop water use efficiency (WUE) are not well understood yet.

Background: Chemical methods allowing a single soil extraction followed by multi‐elemental simultaneous measurement by ICP‐OES are increasingly used to predict plant uptake; however, calibration results against crop response are scarce and contradictory.

Background: Intensive winter wheat–summer maize (Triticum aestivum L.–Zea mays L.) double‐cropping systems in the North China Plain often show high nitrogen (N) losses and water use causing harmful threats to the environment.

Background: Although cover crops provide many agronomic and environmental benefits, they may also increase nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions after termination. The N2O emissions from decomposing biomass of cover crops largely depends on the type of cover and maturity level at termination.

The editorial office would like to draw reader's attention to an error occurring in the “Table of Content” regarding the contribution of Christensen et al. · Volume 183 · Number 4 · August 2020 that we like to apologize for. The correct title must be: 416 The correct figure caption is: N.H. Christiansen, P. SØrensen, R. Labouriau, B.T. Christensen, and G.H. RubÆk – Characterizing phosphorus availability

Background: Rice production in low‐input systems of West Africa relies largely on nitrogen supply from the soil. Especially in the dry savanna agro‐ecological zone, soil organic N is mineralized during the transition period between the dry and the wet seasons. In addition, in the inland valley landscape, soil N that is mineralized on slopes may be translocated as nitrate into the lowlands. There, both

Background: Adaptation of pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.] to low soil phosphorus (P) at early seedling stages and efficient P fertilizer application are crucial for its survival in the West African Sahel. While addition of NH 4 + - N to P in the microdose technique has been reported to stimulate early growth of pearl millet, there is little information regarding root length (RL) at different

Background: Potassium (K) availability in soil and plant uptake is restrained by the dynamic interactions among the different pools of K.

Background: The research on plant salt tolerance has mainly focused on Na+, but Cl− has been relatively neglected. Previous studies have found that the xerophyte Pugionium cornutum, an important forage grass in the arid and semi‐arid regions of northwestern China, could synergistically accumulate high quintiles of Na+ and Cl− in its shoots under NaCl treatments. However, the separate effects of these

Background: The açaí palm (Euterpe oleracea Mart.) is a species native to the Amazon region, where the largest stock of these palms is located in the state of Pará, Brazil. This species occurs predominantly spontaneously in the plateau and plains areas of the Amazonian estuary. Water deficit is the main limiting factor of plants, negatively regulating the growth, metabolism and productivity of crops

Background: In search for more sustainable crop production, the subsoil has recently come into focus as considerable reservoir of nutrients and water.

Background and aims: Plant‐derived, ester‐bound substituted fatty acids have been used for decades as biomarkers to identify input of plant materials in sediments and soils. However, the long‐term decomposition patterns of these biomarker compounds under natural conditions are not well understood, although this is a basic prerequisite for quantitative biomarker applications.

The use of Hydrus‐1D for modeling soil gas fluxes can be improved by introducing a parameter f obtained by fitting the Millington–Quirk (MQ) tortuosity model to measured gas diffusion coefficients. The approach was tested for data from soil horizons of two sandy forest sites located in Northeast‐Germany. f‐values ranged between 0.41 and 0.54, indicating a more tortuous pore systems than predicted by

Background: Being one of the important nutrients required by plants during photosynthesis, nitrogen (N) exerts a significant control on primary productivity and carbon dioxide sequestration. Therefore, it is essential to quantify the rates of N cycling processes, such as gross N mineralization and nitrification, to understand the flow and availability of N in different ecosystems. Lack of such data

Background: Hygroscopic salts are often applied as foliar fertilizers and calcium (Ca) salts have been used as model for cuticular permeability studies, with focus on their Point of Deliquescence (POD).

Background: In flooded rice fields, root zone temperatures (RZT) are buffered by the ponded water layer. With global warming, a higher frequency of hot days and hot nights, and the introduction of water‐saving irrigation technologies, RZT are likely to vary more widely, particularly between night and day.

Background: Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) are commonly found in arid ecosystems and are known to have increased carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) concentrations compared to non‐crusted soil. Similar biocrusts were recently identified in Florida, USA sandy soil agroecosystems where they could impact soil biogeochemical cycling, particularly of C and N, in the crop rooting zone.

The legacy of charcoal making, an old and widespread forest exploitation activity, is a plethora of charcoal hearth (CH) soils that occur all around the world with peculiar features, the main of which is a top, thick, black, charcoal‐rich horizon. Being substantially due to human activity, these soils are anthropogenic or “human‐altered and human‐transported” soils. However, the two most widely used

Background: There is considerable uncertainty about the actual size of the global soil organic carbon (SOC) pool and its spatial distribution due to insufficient and heterogeneous data coverage.

Background: The occurrence of calcium (Ca)‐related disorders is common in tomato production and may be due to factors such as excess nitrogen (N) fertilization. Thus, Ca sprays are often applied as preventive measure to avoid the occurrence of blossom‐end rot. In addition, evidence indicates that Si can act beneficially on tomatoes and relieve Ca deficiency.

Background and aim: The diffusion of inorganic nitrogen (N) in soils is strongly affected by their physical characteristics and hydraulic gradients, which enable them to store and transport nutrients over time and space. The objective of this research was to use the microdialysis technique to continuously monitor the diffusive fluxes of inorganic N from the physical N store towards root surfaces in

Background and aims: The effects of climate factors and rock fragment content (RFC) on soil nitrous oxide (N2O) emission and mineral N leaching can be important in reducing N losses in different agroecosystems. This study aimed to analyze and quantify the intertwined effects of precipitation intensity, temperature, RFC, and land use on these two kinds of soil N losses.

The numerous feedback loops between roots, microorganisms, soil chemical and physical properties, and environmental variables result in spatial parameter patterns which are highly dynamic in time. In order to improve our understanding of the related rhizosphere processes and their relevance at the soil–plant system scale, experimental platforms are required. Those platforms should enable (1) to relate

The editorial office would like to draw reader's attention to an error occurring in the publication by Dreyer et al. · Ammonium‐driven nitrification plays a key role in increasing Mn availability in calcareous soils · pp. 389–396 · Volume 183 · Number 3 · June 2020 that we like to apologize for. 1. Figure 2 : The correct figure caption is: “Impact of stabilized and non‐stabilized N fertilizer on Mn

Background: The low fertility of sandy soils in South‐Western Australia is challenging for the establishment of temperate perennial pastures.

Background: The inadequate application of nitrogen (N) to crops has increased the reactive N in the atmosphere and in the surface and ground waters. Stabilized N‐fertilizers with nitrification (NI) and urease (UI) inhibitors have been proposed to reduce these environmental problems without affecting or even increasing crop productivity.

To quantify carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) losses in soils of West African urban and peri‐urban agriculture (UPA) we measured fluxes of CO2‐C, N2O‐N, and NH3‐N from irrigated fields in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, and Tamale, Ghana, under different fertilization and (waste‐)water regimes. Compared with the unamended control, application of fertilizers increased average cumulative CO2‐C emissions during

Background: Stimulatory efficacy of spent mushroom compost (SMC) cannot be overemphasized.

Background: Nitrogen deposition can cause an ecosystem‐level shift in available N (nitrogen) to P (phosphorus) availability. However, most plant N nutrition is from edaphic sources rather than deposition and in seasonally dry grassland systems, root litter is the predominant nutrient source.

We tested the performance of a newly developed CO2 probe, K33SOIL [based on the sensor module K33 (Senseair, Sweden)], under harsh temperature and humidity conditions in a laboratory experiment. The K33SOIL, competed well (RMSE = 0.032% CO2) with the often used GMP343 (Vaisala, Finland) in precision and accuracy. A field experiment showed that the K33SOIL is also suitable for in situ applications.

Background: Cover cropping appears as a useful land management practice with numerous benefits for ecosystem functions.

Background and Aims: Agronomic biofortification of food crops with iodine may improve the dietary intake of this trace element, which is essential for human development and health. So far, little is known about the suitability of this technique in pome fruits. The objectives of this study were (1) to investigate uptake and translocation of exogenously applied iodine in apple trees, (2) to identify

Crop rotation adoption in no‐tillage systems (NTS) has been recommended to increase the biological activity and soil aggregation, suppress soil and plant pathogens, and increase the productivity aiming at the sustainability of agricultural areas. In this context, this study aimed to assess the effect of crop rotation on the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) community and soil aggregation in a soil

Background: Since recently, the traditional rice–wheat rotation systems in Nepal are subject to drastic changes. Progressing urbanisation and shifting consumer preferences drive a replacement of wheat by high‐value vegetables during the cold dry season, particularly in the peri‐urban fringes, while emerging water shortages prevent permanent soil flooding during the monsoon season, leading to partial

Background and aims: Most physiological and biochemical studies on salt stress are NaCl‐based. However, other ions (e.g., K+, Ca2+, Mg2+, and SO 4 2 - ) also contribute to salt stress in special circumstances. In this study, salt stress induced by various salts was investigated for a better understanding of salinity.