Understanding the System Soil—Where Are We and What Are the Next Steps?

Dear Colleagues, 

Soils represent complex systems defined and governed by the delicate interplay between the biosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and lithosphere. During the last few years, it has been increasingly recognized that disturbance of this interplay will increase soil degradation, with all its subsequent negative effects on soil ecosystem functions and services. As one of the aims of Soil Systems lies in providing a platform for presenting and discussing new research for a better understanding of soil processes. We plan to publish a collection of review papers written by scholars working in soil, covering the main advances in a specific field of their expertise. 

Therefore, we invite contributions to this Special Issue. All papers in this Special Issue will be collected into a printed edition book after the deadline and will be promoted substantially. 

The papers will be published, free of charge, with full open access after peer review to benefit both authors and readers. Please note that selected full papers will still be subjected to a thorough and rigorous peer review. 

For organizing reasons and to avoid overlapping contributions, please confirm your willingness to participate, providing a working title and a short summary of your intended contribution, by no later than 30 April 2024. 

Prof. Dr. Heike Knicker
Prof. Dr. Yakov Kuzyakov
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Soil Systems is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.