Articles | Volume 11, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-11-1041-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Special issue:
https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-11-1041-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Preface
| 
03 Dec 2025
Preface |
| 03 Dec 2025
| 03 Dec 2025
Preface: Illuminating soil's hidden dimensions, a decade of progress and future directions in agrogeophysics research
Alejandro Romero-Ruiz
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Centre of Geothermics and Hydrogeology, University of Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Department of Agroecology and Environment, Agroscope, Reckenholz, Zürich, Switzerland
Dave O'Leary
Teagasc, Animal and Grassland Research and Innovation Centre, Moorepark, Fermoy, Ireland
Dongxue Zhao
Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, University of Queensland, Queensland, Australia
Earth & Environmental Sciences, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, United States
Sarah Garré
Plant Science Unit, Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (ILVO), Melle, Belgium
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Jayson Gabriel Pinza, Ona-Abeni Devos Stoffels, Robrecht Debbaut, Jan Staes, Jan Vanderborght, Patrick Willems, and Sarah Garré
SOIL, 11, 681–714, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-11-681-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-11-681-2025, 2025
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We can use hydrological models to estimate how water is allocated in soils with compaction. However, compaction can also affect how much plants can grow in the field. Here, we show that when we consider this affected plant growth in our sandy soil compaction model, the resulting water allocation can change a lot. Thus, to get more reliable model results, we should know the plant growth (above and below the ground) in the field and include them in the models.
Salar Saeed Dogar, Cosimo Brogi, Dave O'Leary, Ixchel M. Hernández-Ochoa, Marco Donat, Harry Vereecken, and Johan Alexander Huisman
SOIL, 11, 655–679, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-11-655-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-11-655-2025, 2025
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Farmers need precise information about their fields to use water, fertilizers, and other resources efficiently. This study combines underground soil data and satellite images to create detailed field maps using advanced machine learning. By testing different ways of processing data, we ensured a balanced and accurate approach. The results help farmers manage their land more effectively, leading to better harvests and more sustainable farming practices.
Linqing Luo, Unai Gutierrez Santiago, and Yuxin Wu
Wind Energ. Sci., 10, 1763–1773, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-10-1763-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-10-1763-2025, 2025
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We introduced a new method to monitor wind turbine gearboxes using distributed fiber-optic technology. By attaching a single optical fiber to the gearbox, we tracked strain changes at high resolution, capturing gear movement, torque, and temperature in real time. This study demonstrated the link between torque and strain, enabling early fault detection. The approach offers a cost-effective way to improve gearbox reliability and reduce downtime, supporting more sustainable wind energy operations.
Solomon Ehosioke, Sarah Garré, Johan Alexander Huisman, Egon Zimmermann, Mathieu Javaux, and Frédéric Nguyen
Biogeosciences, 22, 2853–2869, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-2853-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-2853-2025, 2025
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Understanding the electromagnetic properties of plant roots is useful to quantify plant properties and monitor plant physiological responses to changing environmental factors. We investigated the electrical properties of the primary roots of Brachypodium and maize plants during the uptake of fresh and saline water using spectral induced polarization. Our results indicate that salinity tolerance varies with the species and that Maize is more tolerant to salinity than Brachypodium.
Dave O'Leary, Patrick Tuohy, Owen Fenton, Mark G. Healy, Hilary Pierce, Asaf Shnel, and Eve Daly
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1966, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1966, 2025
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We assess the impact of open drain damming to help restore drained peat soils. We measured how water levels and soil moisture changed over time and space using field sensors and geophysical mapping tools. Our results show that the impact of damming is limited to < 20 m on our site. This approach could support efforts to reduce carbon loss and improve the health of peatland landscapes in a practical, scalable way
Guillaume Blanchy, Waldo Deroo, Tom De Swaef, Peter Lootens, Paul Quataert, Isabel Roldán-Ruíz, Roelof Versteeg, and Sarah Garré
SOIL, 11, 67–84, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-11-67-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-11-67-2025, 2025
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This work implemented automated electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) for belowground field phenotyping alongside conventional field breeding techniques, thereby closing the phenotyping gap. We show that ERT is not only capable of measuring differences between crops but also has sufficient precision to capture the differences between genotypes of the same crop. We automatically derive indicators, which can be translated to static and dynamic plant traits, directly useful for breeders.
Benjamin Mary, Veronika Iván, Franco Meggio, Luca Peruzzo, Guillaume Blanchy, Chunwei Chou, Benedetto Ruperti, Yuxin Wu, and Giorgio Cassiani
Biogeosciences, 20, 4625–4650, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-4625-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-4625-2023, 2023
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The study explores the partial root zone drying method, an irrigation strategy aimed at improving water use efficiency. We imaged the root–soil interaction using non-destructive techniques consisting of soil and plant current stimulation. The study found that imaging the processes in time was effective in identifying spatial patterns associated with irrigation and root water uptake. The results will be useful for developing more efficient root detection methods in natural soil conditions.
Liange Zheng, Chun Chang, Sharon Borglin, Sangcheol Yoon, Chunwei Chou, Yuxin Wu, and Jens T. Birkholzer
Saf. Nucl. Waste Disposal, 2, 181–182, https://doi.org/10.5194/sand-2-181-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/sand-2-181-2023, 2023
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Bentonite buffer surrounding the waste canister is a critical part of the multi-barrier system for high-level radioactive waste geological repositories that undergo heating from heat-emitting waste and hydration from the host rock. Thus, extensive research was conducted to study the alteration of bentonite due to heating and hydration under high temperatures (200 °C); this work provides valuable data for model validation.
Guillaume Blanchy, Lukas Albrecht, Gilberto Bragato, Sarah Garré, Nicholas Jarvis, and John Koestel
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 27, 2703–2724, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-2703-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-2703-2023, 2023
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We collated the Open Tension-disk Infiltrometer Meta-database (OTIM). We analysed topsoil hydraulic conductivities at supply tensions between 0 and 100 mm of 466 data entries. We found indications of different flow mechanisms at saturation and at tensions >20 mm. Climate factors were better correlated with near-saturated hydraulic conductivities than soil properties. Land use, tillage system, soil compaction and experimenter bias significantly influenced K to a similar degree to soil properties.
Guillaume Blanchy, Lukas Albrecht, John Koestel, and Sarah Garré
SOIL, 9, 155–168, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-9-155-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-9-155-2023, 2023
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Adapting agricultural practices to future climatic conditions requires us to synthesize the effects of management practices on soil properties with respect to local soil and climate. We showcase different automated text-processing methods to identify topics, extract metadata for building a database and summarize findings from publication abstracts. While human intervention remains essential, these methods show great potential to support evidence synthesis from large numbers of publications.
Guillaume Blanchy, Gilberto Bragato, Claudia Di Bene, Nicholas Jarvis, Mats Larsbo, Katharina Meurer, and Sarah Garré
SOIL, 9, 1–20, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-9-1-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-9-1-2023, 2023
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European agriculture is vulnerable to weather extremes. Nevertheless, by choosing well how to manage their land, farmers can protect themselves against drought and peak rains. More than a thousand observations across Europe show that it is important to keep the soil covered with living plants, even in winter. A focus on a general reduction of traffic on agricultural land is more important than reducing tillage. Organic material needs to remain or be added on the field as much as possible.
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Short summary
Agrogeophysics harnesses geophysical methods for non-invasive, multiscale mapping and monitoring of soil properties and processes in the plant-soil-atmosphere continuum, which are responsible for climate regulation, food production and water security. Here, we present an overview of advances in Agrogeophysics in the last decade and discuss how the contributions to the Special Issue “Agrogeophysics: Illuminating soil’s hidden dimensions” help addressing agricultural and environmental challenges.
Agrogeophysics harnesses geophysical methods for non-invasive, multiscale mapping and monitoring...
Special issue