Editorial: Sustainable cultivated land use and management

Cultivated land is an important resource for human survival and development, making its protection one of the highest global priorities. Healthy, ecological, and highly efficient cultivated lands form the basis of modern agriculture and thus the foundation of food security. In recent decades, rapid urbanization and industrialization have promoted economic development and improved livelihoods worldwide, leading to diversified food and commodity production and consumption. Notwithstanding, land degradation problems including abandonment, pollution, and erosion have emerged during the land-use transition, posing challenges to both the ecosystem service supply and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In particular, intensive cultivated land use and the overwhelming dependence on fertilizers and pesticides have led to agricultural non-point source pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, which further challenge the ecological environment and sustainable development. Within this Research Topic, we aimed to present a collection of original articles that address the theories, practices, and models for sustainable cultivated land use and management. This Research Topic collected a total of 17 papers, which can be largely divided into the following three areas.


Introduction
Cultivated land is an important resource for human survival and development, making its protection one of the highest global priorities. Healthy, ecological, and highly efficient cultivated lands form the basis of modern agriculture and thus the foundation of food security. In recent decades, rapid urbanization and industrialization have promoted economic development and improved livelihoods worldwide, leading to diversified food and commodity production and consumption. Notwithstanding, land degradation problems including abandonment, pollution, and erosion have emerged during the land-use transition, posing challenges to both the ecosystem service supply and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In particular, intensive cultivated land use and the overwhelming dependence on fertilizers and pesticides have led to agricultural non-point source pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, which further challenge the ecological environment and sustainable development.
Within this Research Topic, we aimed to present a collection of original articles that address the theories, practices, and models for sustainable cultivated land use and management. This Research Topic collected a total of 17 papers, which can be largely divided into the following three areas.
(1) Land use and ecosystem service-a total of six papers, including land-use transitions and their influence on spatiotemporal patterns of the ecosystem service and their contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals.
(2) Cultivated land use-a total of five papers, including spatiotemporal changes and driving forces, vulnerability, and planting pattern change. (3) Cultivated land management-a total of six papers, including fragmentation identification, productivity, optimization, and fertilization management.

Cultivated land use
Li et al. revealed that significantly increased cultivated land area was to be found in underdeveloped areas in China. Complex interaction between social, economic, agricultural, and natural factors caused the change in cultivated land area in China between 1996 and 2019. Ou and Wang investigated the varied spatiotemporal expansion of greenhouse-led cultivated land in Shandong province, China, from 1989 to 2018. Internal budget expenditures for rural development, local retail sales, the average earnings of local farmers, and external vegetable supply and consumption were the driving forces of greenhouse-led cultivated land expansion. Niu et al. assessed the cultivated land system vulnerability in Sanmenxia city, China. They concluded that vulnerability was affected by the sensitivity and adaptive capacity of human social and economic activities and the capacity of the farmland system to cope with stress. Feng and Wang detected the spatial mismatch of water resources and grain planting pattern changes in China. The depletion of grain production potential in the water-limited regions was suggested to balance the agricultural development between the north and south regions. Lastly, Du et al. analyzed the evolution of cropping patterns based on remote sensing identification and provided a practical basis for establishing high-yield and efficient planting models in the "black soil'' region of China. barbarum yield under drip fertigation in Ningxia, northwestern China. The results suggest that drip fertigation with 60 mg L −1 nitrogen plus 30 mg L −1 phosphorus is the optimal practice for carbon sequestration and the sustainable production of L. barbarum in arid regions.

Cultivated land management
The 17 papers in this Research Topic use field experiments, regional investigations, and model simulation and prediction, and they provide interesting and meaningful results and thoughtprovoking discussions on land use and ecosystem services, cultivated land use, and cultivated land management. We express our thanks to all the authors and reviewers who contributed to this Research Topic. Together, these articles provide a valuable insight into the discussion of sustainable cultivated land use and management and create an exciting impetus for future research. More attention should be dedicated to meet the ever-growing needs of people for a Frontiers in Environmental Science frontiersin.org better life by cultivated land quantity and quality and ecological protection. An ecological environmental impact assessment of cultivated land use is conducive to the coupling of the sustainable use of cultivated land and the sustainable development of human society.

Author contributions
More attentions should be addressed to meet the people's evergrowing needs for a better life by cultivated land quantity, quality and ecological protection. Ecological environmental impact assessment of cultivated land use is conducive to the coupling of cultivated land sustainable use and human society sustainable development.