The United Nations has designated December 5th as World Soil Day to champion the critical role of soil in sustaining life, food security, and ecosystem services.
Soil and the related communities are the foundation of forest functioning and an important resource for climate change mitigation. Despite its critical importance, soil degradation, erosion, and contamination threaten forest integrity with consequences for the entire ecosystem and adjacent resources. On the other hand, forests are a critical resource that help mitigate erosion and nutrient loss, facilitate nutrient cycling, maintain soil structure and water quantity and quality, support biodiversity and regulate climate.
Thus, there is a pressing need to investigate the ecological relationships between forest functioning and soil health and the multiple dimensions of this relationship, including informing sustainable practices for environmental resource management and policy makers, and public awareness and engagement to promote sustainable soil management practices.
To enhance understanding, on the interrelationships between forest soil and vegetation, thereby supporting the aims of World Soil Day, we aim to collect a series of articles on the latest research pertaining to forest soils, including synthesis, theoretical and opinion pieces. This collection aims at covering the following points but not limited to:
• The role of forests in soil conservation and functioning
• Deforestation and soil degradation: causes, consequences, and solutions
• Forest soils and climate change: carbon storage, resilience, and adaptation
• Traditional knowledge and advanced technologies to promote soil health and conservation
• Restoring degraded forestlands: best practices for soil rehabilitation
• Survey soil health status in select natural and urban forests
• Refugial forest soils: indicators of resilience and conservation value
• Conduct applied research on local/regional soil health and forest conservation challenges
• Case studies on community-based knowledge to promote soil health and forest conservation challenges

Are you interested in contributing a manuscript to this Research Topic?

World Soil Day – Advances in Forest Soil Research