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Agriculture
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Soil Quality and Health to Assess Agro-Ecosystems Services
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Soil Quality and Health to Assess Agro-Ecosystems Services

A special issue of Agriculture (ISSN 2077-0472). This special issue belongs to the section "Agricultural Soils".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 February 2022) | Viewed by 22901

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Sara Marinari

E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor
Department for Innovation in Biological, Agro-food and Forest systems DIBAF, Tuscia University, Tuscia, Italy
Interests: soil science; pedogenesis; soil processes; biogeochemical cycling; agricultural management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Roberto Mancinelli

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Guest Editor
Department of Agriculture and Forest Sciences (DAFNE), University of Tuscia, 01100 Viterbo, Italy
Interests: agroecology; organic agriculture; integrated agriculture; fertilizer management; weed management; soil tillage; greenhouse gas emissions; carbon cycle
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Emanuele Radicetti

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Chemical, Pharmaceutical and Agricultural Sciences, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy
Interests: crop management and production; weed management; weed community composition; integrated weed management (IWM); soil fertility and plant nutrition; sustainable cropping systems; environmental science
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With human health being linked to soil health, the most evident thing that soils do for people is provide a basis for food production. However, other critical ecosystem services are provided by healthy soils to human health, including carbon sequestration, detoxification, water and nutrient retention, and maintaining biodiversity. As the Guest Editor of the Special Issue below, I would like to invite you to contribute with a paper regarding experimental studies on soil quality/health assessment in agricultural systems to evaluate ecological services beyond food production, promoting knowledge on sustainable agricultural management for natural resource maintenance and future progress of agroecosystems. In order to evaluate the agricultural management, in this Special Issue, various soil functions will be taken into account: (i) soil water absorption and retention affecting available water for the cropping system and reduction of surface runoff and erosion risk; (ii) soil-regulating nutrients, pollutant or sediment transformations, and movement to surface- or groundwater affecting water quality; (iii) soil acting as a source or a sink for several greenhouse gases affecting atmosphere quality; and (iv) soil providing habitat for soil biota, which represents an important source of biodiversity.

Dr. Sara Marinari
Prof. Dr. Roberto Mancinelli
Dr. Emanuele Radicetti
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agriculture is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • soil quality index
  • nutrients cycling
  • soil physical properties
  • soil biodiversity
  • water quality
  • water cycling
  • greenhouse gas emission
  • sustainable agriculture
  • cropping systems

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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Editorial

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4 pages, 177 KiB  
Editorial
Soil Quality and Health to Assess Agro-Ecosystems Services
by Sara Marinari, Emanuele Radicetti and Roberto Mancinelli
Agriculture 2022, 12(6), 784; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12060784 - 30 May 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1936
Abstract
Nowadays, agricultural production systems are facing serious challenges mainly related to the climate changing, the world population growing and environmental pollution that are threatening the survival of the natural resources [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soil Quality and Health to Assess Agro-Ecosystems Services)

Research

Jump to: Editorial

19 pages, 4325 KiB  
Article
Influence of Organic and Mineral Fertilizers on Soil Organic Carbon and Crop Productivity under Different Tillage Systems: A Meta-Analysis
by Mohamed Allam, Emanuele Radicetti, Valentina Quintarelli, Verdiana Petroselli, Sara Marinari and Roberto Mancinelli
Agriculture 2022, 12(4), 464; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12040464 - 25 Mar 2022
Cited by 26 | Viewed by 6570
Abstract
The intensive use of mineral (M) fertilizers may cause harm the environment via leaching or greenhouse gas emissions, destroy soil fertility as a consequence of loss of soil organic matter, and, due to their high price, they are economically unviable for producers. It [...] Read more.
The intensive use of mineral (M) fertilizers may cause harm the environment via leaching or greenhouse gas emissions, destroy soil fertility as a consequence of loss of soil organic matter, and, due to their high price, they are economically unviable for producers. It is widely accepted that organic (O) fertilizers may deal with pressing challenges facing modern agriculture, even if farmers need to improve their knowledge for applying in fertilization programs. A meta-analysis approach has been adopted to evaluate the effects on soil organic carbon (SOC) and crop yield of O fertilizers, applied alone or in combination with mineral fertilizers (MO) under conventional (CT), reduced (RT), and no-tillage (NT) regimes. The analysis was performed in different climatic conditions, soil properties, crop species, and irrigation management. Organic fertilizers have a positive influence in increasing SOC compared with M (on average 12.9%), even if high values were observed under NT (20.6%). The results highlighted the need for flexible and environment-specific systems when considering organic fertilization subjected to different tillage regimes. Similarly, MO application showed a better crop yield response in CT and RT under coarse soils when compared with M fertilizer applied alone (on average 13.4 and 12.7%, respectively), while in medium-textured soils, CT and RT yielded better than NT under O fertilizers (9.5 and 11.2 vs. 2.5%, respectively). Among the crop species, legumes performed better when O fertilizers were adopted than M fertilizers (on average 15.2%), while among the other crop species, few differences were detected among the fertilization programs. Under irrigated systems, RT and NT led to higher productivity than CT, especially under MO treatments (on average 9.2 vs. 3.4%, respectively). The results highlighted the importance of the environmental and agronomical factors and how their understanding could affect the impact of these conservation farming practices on crop productivity to improve the sustainability of the farming system in a specific region. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soil Quality and Health to Assess Agro-Ecosystems Services)
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12 pages, 706 KiB  
Article
Microbial Indices to Assess Soil Health under Different Tillage and Fertilization in Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) Crop
by Sara Marinari, Emanuele Radicetti, Verdiana Petroselli, Mohamed Allam and Roberto Mancinelli
Agriculture 2022, 12(3), 415; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12030415 - 15 Mar 2022
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3231
Abstract
Intensive agronomic practices such as deep and repeated tillage and applying high mineral fertilization rates to improve crop yields have gradually determined soil resource degradation. A study was carried out over a two-year period (2015 and 2016) to assess effects of tillage (plough; [...] Read more.
Intensive agronomic practices such as deep and repeated tillage and applying high mineral fertilization rates to improve crop yields have gradually determined soil resource degradation. A study was carried out over a two-year period (2015 and 2016) to assess effects of tillage (plough; subsoil; and spading) and fertilization (mineral vs. organic) on soil health relative to carbon and nitrogen dynamics in potato crop in the Mediterranean environment. Microbial indices could be successfully used as tool for assessing soil health in terms of predictors and indicators of carbon sequestration and nitrogen availability. The microbial quotients, calculated as percentage of the microbial-C to total organic C (Cmic:Corg), was significantly higher in subsoiling than in plowing and spading soil tillage, and higher in 2016 (3.19%) than 2015 (1.72%). The activity of enzymes involved in C cycle was significantly higher in subsoiling and spading than in plowing, while acid phosphatase was positively affected by spading and arylsulfatase increased with plowing. The whole enzyme activity expressed as synthetic enzymatic index (SEI) was positively affected by subsoiling and plowing in 2015 (4254) compared to spading tillage (3934). A general decrease in soil enzyme activity in 2016 than 2015 was observed. The subsoiling in potato crop favored the immobilization of carbon and nitrogen during the wet spring–summer period. Conversely, the plowing favored the mineralization process when the spring–summer period became more dried. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soil Quality and Health to Assess Agro-Ecosystems Services)
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20 pages, 2186 KiB  
Article
Can the Biological Activity of Abandoned Soils Be Changed by the Growth of Paulownia elongata × Paulownia fortunei?—Preliminary Study on a Young Tree Plantation
by Małgorzata Woźniak, Anna Gałązka, Grzegorz Siebielec and Magdalena Frąc
Agriculture 2022, 12(2), 128; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12020128 - 18 Jan 2022
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3122
Abstract
Bioenergy crops play an ecologically and economically fundamental role as an alternative to agri-food productions and as renewable energy sources. Thus far, less attention has been given to assessing microbiological indicators of soil quality in bioenergy crops on abandoned land. The current study [...] Read more.
Bioenergy crops play an ecologically and economically fundamental role as an alternative to agri-food productions and as renewable energy sources. Thus far, less attention has been given to assessing microbiological indicators of soil quality in bioenergy crops on abandoned land. The current study assessed microbial and biochemical properties of two soils with different textures in agroforestry plantations of Paulownia elongata × Paulownia fortunei, with regard to the analysis of potential for the reclamation and redevelopment of abandoned lands. The soil samples were characterised by measuring microbial biomass C and N, key enzyme activities, and determining the community-level physiological profiles (CLPP) using Biolog EcoPlates. Soil texture, sampling time (June and October), and distance of sampling (0.1 m and 1 m from a tree) had significant effects on microbiological properties. Moreover, dehydrogenases and acid phosphatase activities as well as microbial biomass C and N decreased with distance from the trees, and were significantly higher in the October than in the June. The community-level physiological profiles (CLPP) and diversity indices showed a similar trend to other parameters of biological activity. The results showed that there were significant differences in the AWCD (average well-colour development) of all carbon sources among the Paulownia microbial communities (p < 0.05). In summary, already after one year of tree planting, a statistically significant increase in microbial activity was found, regardless of soil texture, when evaluated by various methods. This proves the value of the Paulownia as fast-growing plant for recultivation and improvement of soil quality on abandoned land. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soil Quality and Health to Assess Agro-Ecosystems Services)
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8 pages, 9528 KiB  
Communication
Effect of Cover Crop, Slurry Application with Different Loads and Tire Inflation Pressures on Tire Track Depth, Soil Penetration Resistance and Maize Yield
by Gerhard Moitzi, Elisabeth Sattler and Helmut Wagentristl
Agriculture 2021, 11(7), 641; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11070641 - 8 Jul 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2445
Abstract
Agricultural soils can be affected in their ecological functions by in-field traffic of agricultural machinery. A three-factorial research design was carried out in a field experiment to test the effect of slurry tanker filling level (filled, half-filled, empty), tire inflation pressure of the [...] Read more.
Agricultural soils can be affected in their ecological functions by in-field traffic of agricultural machinery. A three-factorial research design was carried out in a field experiment to test the effect of slurry tanker filling level (filled, half-filled, empty), tire inflation pressure of the slurry tanker (high: 300 kPa, low: 100 kPa), and ground covering (+cover crop, −cover crop) on tire track and soil penetration resistance (averaged, 0–20 cm, 21–40 cm) after application on the fields in spring. Additionally, the effect on grain yield of the subsequent culture was considered. The total weight of the tractor slurry tanker combination was 16,470 kg (empty), 25,940 kg (half-filled), and 34,620 kg (filled). The low tire inflation pressure of the slurry tanker increased the mean tire–soil contact area by 75% (filled), 38% (half-filled), and 16% (empty tanker). The results obtained show a significant effect of tire inflation pressure and ground covering on the measured parameters. The tire inflation pressure reduction effect on track depth was highest in the filled slurry tanker (−17.8%). With increasing wheel load, the effect of reduced tire inflation pressure on soil penetration resistance (0–20 cm) increased. In the subsoil (21–40 cm), the effect of tire inflation pressure was much lower, indicating that a reduction of tire inflation pressure preserves the upper layers rather than the lower ones. Furthermore, cover crops are linked to a higher degree of soil deformation after traffic with the tractor–slurry combination due to their loosening effect on the topsoil. Tire tracks were 15.0% deeper in the cover crop field than in the field without a cover crop. It is assumed that cover crop mixtures with different types of root mass can influence the mitigation of soil compaction in an ameliorative way. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soil Quality and Health to Assess Agro-Ecosystems Services)
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27 pages, 4824 KiB  
Article
Soil Health Evaluation of Farmland Based on Functional Soil Management—A Case Study of Yixing City, Jiangsu Province, China
by Rui Zhao and Kening Wu
Agriculture 2021, 11(7), 583; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11070583 - 24 Jun 2021
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 4082
Abstract
Given that farmland serves as a strategic resource to ensure national food security, blind emphasis on the improvement of food production capacity can lead to soil overutilization and impair other soil functions. Hence, the evaluation of soil health (SH) should comprehensively take soil [...] Read more.
Given that farmland serves as a strategic resource to ensure national food security, blind emphasis on the improvement of food production capacity can lead to soil overutilization and impair other soil functions. Hence, the evaluation of soil health (SH) should comprehensively take soil productivity and ecological environmental effects into account. In this study, five functions from the perspective of functional soil management were summarized, including primary productivity, provision and cycling of nutrients, the provision of functional and intrinsic biodiversity, water purification and regulation, and carbon sequestration and regulation. For each soil function, in view of the natural and ameliorable conditions affecting SH, basic indicators were selected from the two aspects of inherent and dynamic properties, and restrictive indicators were chosen considering the external properties or environmental elements, with the minimum limiting factor method coupled with weighted linear model. The new evaluation system was tested and verified in Yixing City, China. The healthy and optimally functional soils were concentrated in the northeast and mid-west of Yixing City, whereas unhealthy soils were predominant in the south and around Taihu Lake. The main limitations to SH improvement included cation exchange capacity, nutrient elements, and soluble carbon. The SH evaluation method was verified using the crop performance validation method, and a positive correlation was noted between food production stability index and soil health index, indicating that the evaluation system is reasonable. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soil Quality and Health to Assess Agro-Ecosystems Services)
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