Soils are the basis of life on the Earth. Ninety-five percent of the food we eat comes from our soil, which also supply wide range ecosystem services such as water regulation, nutrient recycling, resilience to climate change and harbors more than half of life, making it the most biodiverse habitat on Earth. Climate change and anthropogenic pressures accelerate the loss of biodiversity and up to 70% of soil ecosystem services. A total of 60–70% EU soil is considered unhealthy and therefore, maintain or enhancing soil health through sustainable soil management is a critical task to safeguard food security for future generations. Improved knowledge on climate smart agricultural soil management practices is fundamental to address anthropogenic pressures and to support EU Mission Soil targets.

The European Joint programme EJP SOIL’ goal and the framework of this Special Issue are to improve the understanding of agricultural soil management by targeting climate change adaptation and mitigation, food security and ecosystem services as well as soil education and capacity building in Europe. EJPSOIL focuses on understanding how soil management and soil-carbon sequestration can contribute to climate change adaptation and mitigation, assessing and monitoring soil health and communication of these knowledge to different stakeholders from science, policy and practice. Within EJP SOIL, over 1100 researchers are working on 44 research projects and 10 framework work packages that together focus on developing new insights into climate-smart agricultural soil management, quantifying trade-offs and synergies between sustainable agricultural production, mitigation and adaptation to climate change, soil degradation, biodiversity, soil quality, and other ecosystem services like erosion control.

The goal of this Special Issue is to bring together the current state-of-the-art knowledge and existing knowledge gaps, and to stimulate discussion on climate-smart soil management practices. Within the remit of EJP SOIL and this special issue, we are soliciting papers that comprehensively summarize and synthesize the cutting-edge science on sustainable climate-smart soil management in agroecosystems, advancing one or more of the following impact areas:

Topics for this call for papers include but not restricted to:

• Fostering understanding of soil management and its influence on climate mitigation and adaptation, sustainable agricultural production and environment
• Understanding how soil carbon sequestration can contribute to climate change mitigation
• Strengthening scientific capacities and cooperation
• Supporting harmonized European soil information including for international reporting
• Fostering the uptake of climate-smart sustainable soil management
• Develop region and context specific fertilization practices

Submission deadline: Sunday, 30 June 2024

More info here

Link to the project factsheet