To investigate the coupled time effects of root reinforcement and wet-dry deterioration in herbaceous plant-loess composites, as well as their microscopic mechanisms, this study focused on alfalfa root-loess composites at different growth stages cultivated under controlled conditions. The research included measuring root morphological parameters, conducting wet-dry cycling tests, and performing triaxial

Microplastic pollution of soils has raised concerns on how microplastics impact soil properties and functions. Impacts of microplastics on soil properties is usually studied by amending soils with microplastics at various concentrations, but little attention has been given on how to compact soils after microplastic incorporation and how microplastics affect soil compressibility. Here, we used the uniaxial

Alpine meadows of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau in China are among the most degraded grasslands due to overgrazing. Soil microbial communities are an essential part of the ecosystem and are affected by environmental changes, including climate, soil properties, and grazing. This study investigated the soil microbial communities and plant and soil properties under seasonal (SG) and continuous (CG) grazing

Hairy vetch (HV, Vicia villosa Roth) cover cropping is an increasing key practice to regenerative agriculture, but its broad adoption is usually limited by the low seed availability. Up to present, the tools for managing HV crops are not well-known, with seed yield being extremely variable within a given field. During three growing cycles intra-field seed yield variation was studied using site-specific

The impact of organic and inorganic amendments on soil physical properties under varying moisture conditions remains unclear. This study uniquely integrates X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) and soil physical measurements to assess structure changes following amendment application in degraded soil under different moisture conditions. In this study i) soil resilience, defined as soil ability to naturally

The present field study assessed the effects of different managements on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Mediterranean rice crop. Given the pressing need to identify sustainable agricultural practices that mitigate GHG emissions while maintaining productivity, the effects on GHG emisions of two irrigation methods (permanent flooding and sprinkler) and two tillage practices (conventional tillage and

Short-term no-tillage (NT) management increased soil bulk density, thereby reducing total porosity and macroporosity, potentially impairing soil aeration. However, whether NT can overcome these negative effects through altering pore morphology remains unclear. Based on a 4-year field experiment comparing rotary tillage (RT), subsoiling (SS), and NT in Northeast China, we evaluated soil gas diffusivity

The timespan between the crop harvesting and the subsequent crop sowing presents an opportunity to improve soil properties through the sowing of cover crops (CCs). However, the short-term effects of specific CCs, such as tillage radish (TR), on soil properties under different tillage systems remain insufficiently explored, particularly in the European context. This study examined the short-term effects

The increase in the global demand for food, energy and fibre, together with the need to adapt to or mitigate climate change, has intensified the search for agricultural production systems that minimise environmental impact and increase productivity. Our aim was to compare the soil C and N levels and stocks and soil fertility in areas of pasture monoculture and agrosilvopastoral systems under different

High-precision pore segmentation results are a critical step in exploring soil internal structures. Due to the complex shapes and blurred boundaries of soil pores, existing methods struggle to automatically and accurately segment pores, leading to inaccurate characterization of soil structure. Recently, the large model Segment Anything Model (SAM) has gained wide application in the field of image segmentation

Inclusion plates added behind deep ripping tines aim to facilitate the movement of topsoil layers deeper into the soil profile, creating longer-lasting pathways to deeper plant root development in situations where natural subsoil reconsolidation is likely. This Australian innovation has recently seen significant adoption in sandy-soil broadacre cropping contexts; however, the use of inclusion plates

Pasture renovation is widely used to increase biomass production and feed quality through establishment of favourable species, while it can also contribute to improved soil health. There are a number of pasture establishment methods available, however their efficacy for establishing an annual winter feed base has not been compared in subtropical grazing systems of Australia. This study investigated

Soil organic matter (SOM) is a primary source of soil nutrients, and accurately estimating SOM content is crucial for boosting agricultural productivity and enhancing soil fertility. Addressing the challenges of high spatial heterogeneity of SOM across large regions and complex soil environments, this study presents a new paradigm for SOM prediction using Lab-measured spectral data (VIS-NIR-SWIR) integrated

Plant litter inputs represent an important approach for mineral-associated organic carbon (MAOC) accumulation critical for the long-term stability of soil organic carbon (SOC). However, a knowledge gap exists regarding how different contents of structural compounds in plant litters influence MAOC accumulation, as well as its molecular composition and diversity. In this study, wheat straw (Triticum

Soil organic matter (SOM) composition is influenced by the input of organic materials. The chemical composition of SOM resulting from the input and turnover of large amounts of manure and waste is insufficiently known to weigh up the risks against the possible benefits. Therefore, we aimed to determine the molecular-chemical composition of SOM in four different treatments of NPK (control), compost

Soil surface roughness (SSR) is widely employed to quantify the spatial variability of soil surface height in farmland, which also plays a critical role in soil erosion. However, traditional methods for measuring SSR are often time-consuming and labor-intensive, with limitations in measurement scale and accuracy. In this study, simulation approach for random and oriented SSR under Gaussian and exponential

The problem of subsoil compaction is increasing because agricultural machinery is becoming heavier and heavier and exerts pressure to the subsoil. Conservation management promotes edaphic soil structure and increases the bearing capacity of the soil. This may even prevent subsoil compaction. To assess the ability of conservation management to mitigate subsoil compaction, we evaluated hydraulic, biological

Soil compaction primarily stems from compression and shear stresses due to field wheeling processes. Laboratory studies have revealed the effects of these two types of stresses on soil structure and pore functions, but their consequences for soil properties and crop under field conditions need to be quantified. In this study, the temporal changes of soil physical conditions and maize growth under repeated

Dryland agriculture is vital to global crop production and food security, with conventional tillage (CT) traditionally dominating rain-fed systems. However, no-tillage (NT) practices are increasingly being adopted as a sustainable alternative to enhance crop productivity and long-term environmental resilience. This meta-analysis compared the effects of NT with CT on dryland winter wheat (Triticum aestivum

Soil compaction induced by frequent field traffic often causes surface waterlogging in wheel rut areas during the rainy season. In arsenic (As)-contaminated farmlands, this process creates varying redox conditions that affect As mobility and transformation at different depths. This study examined the effects of compaction on As behavior in a clay loam Alfisol (from A horizon) under periodic waterlogging

The conversion of rice to greenhouse vineyard cultivation leads to an increase in the amount and frequency of fertilization, as well as a reduction in tillage intensity, which significantly affects soil organic carbon turnover and sequestration. In this study, four types of soils were selected in the coastal area of southeast China based on a sequence of greenhouse vineyard cultivation years of 0,

We used a new methodology to compute stabilized soil organic carbon (SOC) within the density fractions to evaluate the alterations in SOC in fine silty hyperthermicudic haplustalf following fifteen-years of agroforestry practices under cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.)-toria (Brassica campestris L.) based cropping systems and turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) as ground cover crop. The objective of this long-term

Human activities on the Tibetan Plateau have severely degraded native ecosystems, necessitating effective restoration strategies such as turf transplantation. However, the early-stage ecological impacts of this method, particularly microbial responses to polygonal soil cracks at turf interfaces, remain poorly understood. We conducted a 3-year field experiment in southeastern Tibet to compare microbial

Soil organic carbon (SOC) accumulation is critical for maintaining agricultural production and combating climate change. Although organic amendments are commonly applied to improve SOC, the decadal-scale pathways controlling carbon sequestration remain largely unstudied. Here, a 14-year field experiment was utilized to investigate how biochar (BC) and maize straw (SW) regulate soil carbon pumps to

Soil compaction and soil organic matter (SOM) are critical factors influencing crop growth and soil health, yet their interaction and impact on plant-available water (PAW) remain underexplored. To address this, we investigated a 26-year field experiment on fine sandy loam soil in Washington State, USA, involving three biosolids application rates (0, 4.7, and 10.0 Mg ha⁻¹) applied every four years in

Abandoned farmlands are increasing due to socio-economic changes and land marginalization, and they require sustainable land management practices. Biocrusts are a common cover on the topsoil of abandoned farmlands and play an important role in improving soil stability and erosion resistance. The critical functions of biocrusts are known to mostly rely on their biofilaments and extracellular polymeric

Increasing area of bare soil and shrinking meadow patches are a typical degradation process that occurs in alpine meadows on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. The production of runoff and sediment during water erosion is one of driving force in evolution of bare soil and meadow patches. However, how water erosion affects the deformation and evolution of meadow patches remains unclear. Here the effects of

The deficiency of soil phosphorus (P) resources is a challenge of worldwide concern. The efficiency of soil P utilization in alpine mine slopes is especially poor, which limits the growth of plants, making slopes difficult to restore and causing frequent natural disasters. In this study, three mine slopes were chosen as representative study sites on China's Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and the soil aggregate

As an efficient water and soil conservation tillage practice, ridge-furrow planting with plastic film (RP) is rarely used in humid and sub-humid areas. It is hypothesized that RP could break the bottleneck of flat planting (FP) in sub-humid areas that makes it difficult to improve wheat yield. Before recommending RP, it should be clarified how RP promotes the efficient utilization of water in fields

The gut microbiota of soil animals, a key component of soil biodiversity, is critical for host fitness and agroecosystem functioning. Despite the fact that effects of conservation tillage on soil animals and soil microbial communities have been extensively investigated, soil animal-associated microbiota remains poorly understood. Crickets are a globally distributed group of soil macroarthropods in

Legumes play a crucial role in sustainable agriculture by enhancing soil health, nitrogen cycling, carbon sequestration, and salinity mitigation, particularly in the face of climate change. This review synthesizes current knowledge on how legume roots and associated microbial interactions contribute to these processes. The deep-rooting systems of legumes stabilize soil structure while increasing soil

Brazil covers a huge territory (852 Mha) with biomes distributed from North to South of the country. In Southern Brazil, about 24% of the area covered by the Pampa Biome was lost between 1985 and 2022, mainly due to conversion to agriculture, but also due to coal mining. This region holds the largest coal mine in Latin America, namely Candiota Mine, which represents 38 % of the Brazilian coal reserves

The sustainable use of fertilizers to enhance food production while minimizing environmental impact is a pressing global challenge. Soil regeneration is especially critical for soils poor in organic matter and contaminated with heavy metals. This study investigated the effect of mineral-organic mixtures containing zeolite composites and organic additives (lignite/leonardite) on soil enzymes activity

Understanding the mechanisms driving change in soil available potassium (soil AK) is crucial for guiding sustainable agricultural practices. Fertilization in agricultural agroecosystems can profoundly affect soil AK content by temporarily increasing soil AK concentration and leading to substantial potassium depletion through the stimulation of crop growth. However, the role of fertilizers in regulating

In rainfed Mediterranean croplands, the interactive effects of fertilization and tillage types on soil aggregation and soil organic carbon (SOC) have been rarely studied. The objective of this study was to assess the interactive effects of tillage and nitrogen (N) fertilization strategies on different soil and crop properties in a long-term rainfed experiment established in semiarid NE Spain in 2010

Microbial necromass is a major contributor to mineral-associated organic carbon (MAOC), widely recognized as the primary and stable carbon (C) pool in soils. Nevertheless, long-term land use changes modify MAOC content and composition, including its fungal and bacterial contributions, which depend on soil types, particularly its hydraulic properties. Here, the impacts of over 30 years of land use,

Vertical hydrological connectivity (VHC), plays a crucial role in regulating soil water and nutrient cycles, thereby contributing to the sustainability of vegetation restoration. The impacts of anthropic factors, particularly land use changes, on vertical hydrology have gained increasing attention. However, the mechanisms underlying the effects of land use conversion patterns on VHC remain insufficiently

Herein, we report a 6–year–long investigation on the CO2 emission (soil respiration) of a chernozem soil under conventional moldboard plowing (MP) and two conservation tillage techniques, namely shallow cultivation (SC) and no-tillage (NT). This study aims to compare soil respiration data among SC, and MP or NT treatments and investigate the underlying processes influencing the magnitude of soil-derived

Phosphorus (P) availability is fundamental for ensuring sustainable food production in global croplands. Intercropping is a sustainable way that promotes P availability, addressing the multiple challenges of scarcity of P rock and exacerbating pollution. Yet, how intercropping regulates the transformation of P availability from inorganic and organic P fractions in unfertilized cropland is poorly understood

Paddy soil plays a crucial role in terrestrial carbon turnover and climate change. The effects of the continuous application of various fertilisers on soil organic carbon (SOC) accumulation and stabilisation across the paddy soil profile remain inadequately understood. This study systematically compared the impact of four consecutive-year application of kitchen waste fertiliser (KWF), chicken manure

The purpose of this study was to explore the microecological mechanism by which micro/nanobubble-oxygenated drip irrigation promotes the growth of crops in saline soil under excessive quantities of irrigation water. This study focused on investigating the response of root bacterial communities to the cumulative effects of excessive irrigation water at different dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations

Climate change alters rainfall patterns, increasing soil erosion and carbon emissions from agricultural fields, threatening agricultural ecosystems and soil carbon cycling. However, rainfall-induced erosion′s impact on soil CO2 emissions in sloped farmlands remains unclear. This study used experimental plots to simulate four tillage practices: plastic mulching (PM), cross-slope ridge tillage (RT),

Simulation methods are essential for understanding the intricate interactions between soil and tillage implements. Using these methods, the impacts of three forward speeds (3, 5, and 7 km.h−1), two tillage depth (100 and 150 mm), and two rotational speed (180 and 230 rpm) on the rotary tiller power consumption were examined, along with an investigation of surface soil mixing in the field. Analysis

Flotation bogie tracks are widely used to mitigate soil deformation when operating wheeled forest machines on soils with low bearing capacity. While all of these tracks have flat and wide cross members in common, there is considerable variety in cross-member shape. For two common types of flotation bogie tracks with similar basic dimensions but different geometry of the cross members, the distribution

In recent decades, substantial reclamation efforts have successfully transformed the coastal tidal flats of eastern China, expanding agricultural land and increasing crop yields. Timely monitoring of spatiotemporal variations in soil organic carbon content (SOCC) through remote sensing has become crucial for assessing the effectiveness of saline soil improvement measures in reclaimed areas and gaining

Crop diversification is a promising way to ensure agricultural sustainability by enhancing soil functions and ecosystem services. However, the influences of legume-based crop diversification on productivity, soil microbes, soil health, and plant-soil-microbial interactions are still unclear. To elucidate this, we used a 10-year field experiment to assess the impact of crop diversification on soil microbial

Deep-rooted maize plants utilize water and nutrients more effectively, particularly in compacted soil. However, the mechanisms by which different maize genotypes adjust root angles in response to compaction remain underexplored. We conducted a two-year study (2021–2022) on silty loam soils in the North China Plain. We tested two genotypes of maize [one with naturally deep roots (DR) and another with

Enhancing nutrient yields and forage quality is critical for sustainable agricultural and livestock systems. A two-year field study (2022–2023) was conducted on silty loam soils on China’s Loess Plateau and evaluated the synergistic effects of plastic film mulching—black-film (B), white-film (W), and zero-film (Z)—combined with nitrogen (N) application strategies: conventional urea at 270 kg N ha⁻¹ (U270)

Despite increasing interest in sustainable soil management, the mechanisms by which long-term green manure and straw return impact Fe-organic associations and soil organic carbon (SOC) stabilization in paddy soils are unclear. This study examines their effects on SOC stability, aggregate fractionation, Fe oxides, aggregate stability, and SOC composition in macro- and micro-aggregates. A well-established

The crucial impact of infiltration process on many related physical and biogeochemical processes has motivated researchers to develop numerous models for assessing infiltration over the past two centuries. This posed a real challenge for researchers to decide which model to utilize when analyzing experimental infiltration data and created numerous theoretical paths for extracting soil hydraulic properties

The tillage direction is a key aspect of crop planting layout in agricultural croplands. Identifying tillage direction aids agricultural production management by increasing crop yields, simplifying machine operation, and preventing soil erosion. Most current studies utilize unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imagery to extract positional information of planting rows in individual croplands. However, these

Soil surface roughness (SSR) is essential for understanding and modeling soil erosion processes, while whether the overall slope of the investigated terrain surface must be corrected before SSR estimation is still unknown. This study aims to investigate the effects of overall slope on SSR and associated temporal change estimates by using the high-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) from the

Microbial metabolic quotient (qCO2) is an essential predictor for the dynamic of carbon storage in global soil. Dissolved organic matter (DOM) acts as a primary OC source for microbial respiration, and microbial life strategy acts as an important factor in controlling organic carbon utilization, but numerous uncertainties persist regarding their association with qCO2 under long-term manure application

Soil erosion can be effectively controlled through vegetation restoration. Specifically, roots combine with soil to form a root-soil complex, which can effectively enhance soil shear strength and play a crucial role in soil reinforcement. However, the relationship between root mechanical traits and chemical compositions and shear performance and reinforcing capacity of soil is still inadequate. In

Soil microbes and nematodes are key components of soil micro-food webs, driving energy fluxes across trophic levels. While tillage is known to reduce microbial biomass and alter nematode communities, its impacts on energy fluxes under different tillage frequencies remain unclear, particularly in fragile karst ecosystems. To disentangle direct physical disturbances from resource-driven influences, we

Soil drying events play a critical role in shaping nitrogen (N) cycling in drylands by influencing N availability and the risk of N losses. This study examines how different soil management practices (no-tillage (NT) and traditional tillage (TT), with and without liming)affect N mineralization and the accumulation of inorganic N during drying periods in a hot-summer Mediterranean climate. Using soils

Although the physicochemical processes of salinealkali soil amelioration via flue gas desulfurization (FGD) gypsum have been well substantiated, the underlying mechanisms of soil microbial community succession and feedback on the temporal scale of amelioration remain unclear. To elucidate this mechanism, we investigated the microbial community response to the physicochemical properties change with

Wind erosion leads to significant loss of soil and soil organic carbon in arid and semi-arid desert ecosystems, posing a serious threat to sustainable agriculture and ecological security. Soil salt crusts (SSCs),11SSC: soil salt crust, a hard crust formed on the soil surface due to salt accumulation. widely distributed on soil surfaces in these regions, have a notable impact on surface processes, including

The combined application of green manure and rice straw (GMS) effectively enhances carbon sequestration in paddy fields. However, the regulatory mechanisms governing straw carbon incorporation into soil organic carbon (SOC) pools under this practice remain unclear. A two-year study was conducted based on a long-term field experiment to investigate soil organic carbon storage, decomposition patterns

Larger, heavier agricultural machinery compacts subsoil, degrading structure, impairing hydraulic properties, and increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The impacts of traffic-induced compaction can be assessed in the laboratory or the field, though results from these methods often differ. This study aimed to quantify changes in subsoil properties caused by field traffic using lab and field methods