Soil Processes: Insights 2025

Soil processes underpin the health and productivity of terrestrial ecosystems, providing essential services critical to environmental sustainability, food security, climate regulation, and water purification. Recent years have seen rapid advancements in our understanding of these complex systems, spurred by interdisciplinary collaboration, innovative monitoring technologies, and a growing appreciation of soil’s integral role in addressing pressing global challenges. Despite considerable progress, significant questions remain regarding soil health, biogeochemical cycling, remediation of degraded soils, and the broader impact of soil processes on ecosystem resilience.

Contemporary research has yielded notable achievements, including improved monitoring of soil nutrients and contaminants through advanced sensor networks, enhanced detection and remediation of soil pollution, and the development of new indicators for soil quality and health. Efforts in soil conservation - from cover cropping strategies and vegetative buffers to urban and coastal adaptations - have further contributed to sustainable land management. However, challenges such as integration across spatial and temporal scales, climate change impacts, and effective interdisciplinary knowledge exchange persist.

This Research Topic seeks to showcase the latest breakthroughs as well as ongoing challenges in soil process research. We aim to unravel the critical questions influencing future directions, highlight novel methodologies, and identify actionable solutions to advance the science and management of soils.

We welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:

• Innovations in biogeochemical cycling and environmental monitoring (including nutrients, contaminants, organic carbon, and soil gases)
• Novel technologies and approaches for real-time soil monitoring
• Advances in soil conservation: dryland, wetland, urban, and coastal soil management strategies
• Soil contamination sources, pathways, and state-of-the-art remediation methods
• Emerging indicators and assessment frameworks for soil health and quality
• Interdisciplinary studies of soil ecology, microbiology, and the influence of fire and urbanization on soil processes
• Effects of climate change and saltwater intrusion on soil function and resilience
• Pedagogical innovations to enhance environmental soil science education

We encourage contributors to identify prevailing challenges and propose evidence-based solutions, fostering both critical debate and scientific progress. Original Research, Reviews, Perspectives, and Opinion articles are all welcome.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: soil, contamination, pollutants, salt intrusion, conservation, biochemical cycling, monitoring, soil health, soil function, soil management

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.