Black truffle's impact on soil fungi was studied in plantations and forests across seasons via network analysis. Plantations showed more homogeneous and connected fungal network than forests, suggesting greater stability. Black truffle lacked a central role in either system's fungal network. Saprotrophic fungi mainly drove carbon and nutrient cycling. This work improves the understanding of fungal dynamics in black truffle soils and offers insights for better black truffle cultivation.

Cover crops (CC) are known to help capture nitrates, but their role in mitigating pesticide impacts has been less studied. We evaluated how two CC densities (vs. bare soil) affected pesticide residues in soil and solution over 3 months in a greenhouse pot experiment. Our results show that well-developed CCs enhance pesticide biodegradation across a wide range of active substances, likely by sustaining active edaphic microbiota. This further confirms the role of CCs in groundwater protection.

In this article, we developed a method to better understand how soil water moisture and salt content affect electrical signals measured from the surface by electromagnetic induction technique. This helps farmers manage irrigation, especially in areas using salty water. By combining field and lab data, we could tell how much each factor—water or salt—affected the signal. This technique offers a faster, easier way to track soil health and could improve how we use water in farming.

The study evaluates the effect of trachyte and basalt powders on soil and maize yield in the Sudano-Sahelian zone of Cameroon. Texture, base saturation, and organic carbon indicate moderate limitations. The climate is favourable for maize cultivation. Rock powder application significantly improves yield, with basalt being more effective than trachyte. The advantage of using rock powders lies in their environmental benefits, long-term effectiveness, and more affordable cost.

We assessed three soil quality indicators across Walloon Conservation Agriculture (CA) fields, accounting for practice diversity within four CA-types. Soil indicators varied significantly among CA-types. Inclusion of temporary grasslands in the crop sequence emerged as the most influential factor. Our findings show that CA effects depend on the combination of practices, highlighting the need for a systemic, context-based evaluation of soil quality.

Olive groves face severe soil erosion, threatening their sustainability. This study reviewed existing research to understand how and why erosion happens and why results often seem contradictory. We found that: (a) differences mostly come from how and where erosion is measured, not from disagreement about the problem and (b) soil management is decisive. Keeping the ground covered with vegetation consistently cuts soil loss by over half. This urges the adoption of soil conservation practices.

Permafrost soils store vast amounts of organic carbon, key to understanding climate change. This study uses machine learning and combines existing data with new field data to create detailed regional maps of soil carbon and nitrogen stocks for the Yukon coastal plain. The results show how soil properties vary across the landscape highlighting the importance of data selection for accurate predictions. These findings improve carbon storage estimates and may aid regional carbon budget assessments.

Wheat production in arid regions is limited by poor soil fertility and zinc deficiency. We tested eco-friendly solutions combining compost, zinc supplements, and beneficial microbes in field trials in Pakistan. The integrated approach boosted wheat growth, yield, and grain zinc levels while also improving soil health. These results show that bio-organic fertilization can sustainably enhance crop productivity and nutrition in dryland farming systems.

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.

We used soil evolution model SoilGen to simulate long-term soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration under varying environmental conditions and internal protection mechanisms. Our results revealed a strong role of pedogenetic and environmental history on current-day and future SOC sequestration potential. We propose a framework for developing topical digital twins of long-term soil processes to monitor and project future development of specific soil properties under global change.

To improve soil health and increase crop yields, organic matter is commenly added to arable soils. Studying the effect of different organic resources on soil organic carbon sequestration in four long-term field trials in Kenya, we found that only a small portion (< 7 %) of added organic carbon was stabilised, which was only observed in the top 15 cm of the soil. These results underline the challenges associated with increasing the organic carbon content of tropical arable soils.

In soil, many factors influence how much carbon is stored: the structure of soil particles, microbial activity, and the balance of carbon and nitrogen. Using small-scale simulations, we can quantify and study their interplay. Nitrogen availability limits the microbial efficiency, and dead microbes contribute to long-term carbon storage by becoming occluded in aggregated soil particles. Our study offers new insights into how soils hold carbon, which is crucial for understanding climate change.

Effective management of soil health is essential to managing widespread soil degradation. Current frameworks for defining and assessing soil health are limited, focusing on agricultural contexts and relying on expensive, impractical lab analysis. Our socio-ecological framework offers a way forward, grounding soil health in ecological perspective and using modern sensing and data-driven technologies for rapid, scalable, policy-relevant assessment.

The first report of the field deployment of a new soil sampling device to investigate phosphorus (P) fertiliser strategies. The approach was combined with X-ray fluorescence microscopy to produce 2D spatially-resolved P availability maps to visualise distinct differences between new and conventional P fertilisers. This technique shows great potential for optimising P application and material sciences development; potentially leading to improved productivity and more sustainable P fertiliser use.