Trait-Based Approaches to Sustainable GHG Mitigation, Soil Carbon Sequestration, and Crop Productivity

The agricultural sector is under mounting pressure to meet the growing global food demand driven by population growth, urbanization, and changing consumption patterns. Simultaneously, agriculture is a major source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, contributing significantly to climate change. The dynamics of soil organic carbon (SOC) also play a dual role. While the decomposition of SOC releases carbon dioxide, improved soil management can enhance carbon sequestration, turning agricultural soils into a vital climate mitigation tool. This dual function of agriculture highlights the urgent need for sustainable solutions that can reduce GHG emissions, enhance SOC storage, and maintain or even increase crop productivity. Striking this balance is essential for global food security and environmental sustainability. Notably, the functional traits of crops, such as root system architecture, shoot physiology, and carbon allocation patterns, play pivotal roles in mediating these ecological processes and outcomes.

The pressing need to address rapidly rising global food demand while reducing carbon emissions presents significant challenges to sustainable agriculture. The crop-soil-climate-technology interactions can generate targeted strategies for climate-smart and productive agroecosystems. In this context, this research topic focuses on such sustainable agricultural solutions and their potential contributions to climate change mitigation and food system resilience, with a particular emphasis on how plant function and traits drive ecosystem-level carbon dynamics.

This research topic invites contributors to propose innovative strategies that simultaneously mitigate GHG emissions, enhance SOC sequestration, and boost crop productivity, especially those that focus on:

• Proposing innovative, trait-based solutions to reduce carbon emissions and enhance crop yields, including improvements in management practices, sustainable farming systems, and crop varieties.
• Elucidating the mechanisms by which plant functional traits and physiological responses drive soil carbon cycling and greenhouse gas fluxes.
• Enhancing soil organic carbon sequestration and mitigating GHG emissions under future climate scenarios through plant functional approaches.
• Applying diverse assessment methods across scales, with emphasis on integrating plant trait data into ecosystem models and machine learning frameworks.

Article types and fees

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

• Brief Research Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• ... 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
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Systematic Review

Keywords: Plant functional traits, Greenhouse gas mitigation, Soil carbon sequestration, Crop productivity, Ecosystem functioning

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.