New Prospects of Soil Health and Conservation Tillage for Agricultural Land

Dear Colleagues,

Nowadays, agriculture, global food security, and animal nutrition are significantly affected and threatened by a wide range of variables, such as a lack of quality organic manures, the application of mineral nitrogen (while phosphorus and potassium are neglected), a decrease in soil organic carbon, soil contamination, tillage methods, soil erosion (wind, water, and chemical), or climate change (water deficiency). All these variables significantly affect soil health, which is defined as the continued capacity of soil to serve as a vital living ecosystem sustaining plants, animals, and humans. Healthy soil can provide clean air and water, supporting diverse wildlife and beautiful landscapes. Maintaining and improving soil fertility, quality, and health is and will continue to be important for the overall sustainability of agriculture and maintaining food security (stabilizing yields while reducing negative environmental impacts of agriculture and maintaining soil quality and health) under ongoing climate change.

In this Special Issue (SI), we aim to collect papers (original research articles and reviews) that describe the latest findings and new prospects from comprehensive research focused on soil health. At the same time, knowledge and experiences from different soil conservation techniques will be appreciated (no-till, strip-till, cover cropping, etc.). The results of long-term experiments will be especially welcome, but this SI does not just focus on them. Contributions should evaluate measures for the management of agricultural soils in light of current climate change, and can promote and lead to a sustainable and rational use of agricultural land in the future (the sustainable intensification of agricultural production).

This Special Issue will welcome manuscripts that address the following themes:

• organic and mineral fertilization, especially in relation to soil;
• physical, chemical, and biological properties of soils;
• cycling of substances (water) and nutrients (N, P, K, Ca, and Mg);
• soil organic matter (SOM), humus substances (HS), carbon sequestration, etc.;
• soil infiltration and water retention, soil moisture, etc.;
• watter runoff, soil loss etc.;
• conservation tillage (no-till, strip-till, cover cropping, etc.;
• appropriate agrotechnical measures, etc.

We look forward to receiving your original research articles and reviews.

Dr. Ladislav Menšík
Dr. Lukáš Hlisnikovský
Dr. Eva Kunzová
Guest Editors

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• soil
• soil health
• physical, chemical, and biological properties of soils
• carbon sequestration
• conservation tillage
• agricultural land
• agronomy
• food security
• climate change