Plant physiology has been addressed by less than 10 % of peer-reviewed soil organic carbon research published in the last century. Thus, our understanding of soil carbon dynamics is overwhelmingly built on research that neglects the fundamental processes underlying organic carbon inputs. The active engagement of plant scientists in soil carbon research is imperative to shed light on this blind spot and to develop holistic policies that support soil carbon sequestration.

This study shows calcium helps to preserve soil organic carbon in acidic soils, challenging previous beliefs that their interactions were largely limited to alkaline soils. Using spectromicroscopy, we found calcium is co-located with aromatic and phenolic-rich carbon and that this association was disrupted when the calcium was removed, and only reformed during decomposition with added calcium. This suggests that calcium amendments could enhance soil organic carbon stability.

This review examines the use of portable X-ray fluorescence (PXRF) technology to detect harmful metals in urban soils. PXRF provides a fast, cost-effective method for analyzing contaminated soils, essential for safe urban agriculture. The review highlights PXRF's accuracy and limitations, stressing the need for proper calibration and sample preparation. These findings will help inform future efforts to enhance soil health and environmental safety in urban areas.

This study presents a new, low-cost sensor system for measuring soil CO₂ gas continuously over long periods. Built using easy-to-get hardware components, the system costs USD700. It was tested for six months in desert soil, proving to be reliable, easy to maintain, and capable of capturing important changes in soil CO₂. The CO₂ flux calculations from this system closely matched those from a standard measurement device, making it a practical tool for research requiring multiple sensor systems.

This study explores the link between soil magnetic susceptibility and cation exchange capacity (CEC) to improve prediction models for CEC in European soils. Results show that magnetic susceptibility significantly enhances CEC prediction in sandy soils, achieving high accuracy (R² = 0.94). This offers a rapid, cost-effective way to estimate CEC, emphasizing the value of geophysical data integration in soil assessment.

We developed a method to estimate errors in soil moisture measurements using limited sensors and infrequent sampling. By analyzing data from 93 cropping cycles in agricultural fields in Belgium, we identified both systematic and random errors for our sensor setup. This approach reduces the need for extensive sensor networks and is applicable to agricultural and environmental monitoring, and ensures more reliable soil moisture data, enhancing water management and improving model predictions.

This study evaluated the impact of diverse cover crops on topsoil mineral nitrogen (SMN), N₂O emissions, and carbon (C) sequestration. Non-legume cover crops reduced SMN levels, showed potential for mitigating indirect N₂O emissions, and increased C sequestration, but did not significantly reduce cumulative N₂O emissions compared to fallow. The results highlight the need for tailored cover crop strategies to balance SMN capture, N₂O emissions, and C sequestration effectively.

This study examines soils in the highly industrialized Dunkerque agglomeration in France. Our work reveals the contamination of urban soils by metals from industrial dust, including Cr, Ni, Mo, Mn, Cd and Zn. While Cr, Ni and Mo are relatively stable in soils, Mn, Cd and Zn are more mobile and may pose environmental and health problems. Our findings highlight the need of careful consideration of future land use near industrial emitters, such as allotment gardens, due to these potential hazards.

This study investigates if more detailed water depth and water chemistry data can improve greenhouse gas (GHG) emission estimations from rewetted peatlands under paludiculture. Results showed that in enriched nutrient areas, greenhouse gas emissions can potentially be reduced by paludiculture, depending on the end use of the harvested biomass, additionally, more data on water depth and water chemistry can improve GHG emission estimations, which is especially relevant in rewetted peatlands.

To use fertilizers more effectively, non-invasive geophysical methods can be used to understand nutrient distribution in the soil. We utilize in a long-term field study geophysical techniques to study soil properties and conditions under different fertilizer treatments. We compared the geophysical responds with soil samples and soil sensor data. Especially, electromagnetic induction and electrical resistivity tomography were effective in monitoring changes in nitrate levels over time.

Tropical forest soils are vital for methane uptake, but deforestation and agriculture can alter soil methane oxidation. An experiment in Thailand shows that fertilization significantly suppresses methane oxidation in rubber plantation soils, affecting depths up to 60 cm. Without fertilization, deeper soil layers (below 10 cm) actively oxidize methane. These findings suggest that fertilization negatively impacts the methane uptake capacity of deep-layer soils in rubber plantations.

We integrate various methods to create soil property maps for soil surveyors, which they can utilize as a reference before beginning their fieldwork. A new sampling design based on a geographical stratification is proposed focussing on local feature space variability. It allows for a systematic analysis of predictive accuracy for varying densities. The spectral and spatial models yielded high accuracies. Our study highlights the value of integrating pedometric technologies in soil surveys.