Sustainable Management of Soil Nitrogen and Phosphorus in Diverse Farmland Systems

Soil mineral nutrition and nutrient cycling form the foundation of agricultural productivity, determining both crop yields and the environmental footprint of farming systems. Globally, farmland soils face unprecedented challenges, including nutrient depletion, imbalanced fertilization, and the disruption of natural nutrient cycles caused by intensive agricultural practices. These issues are compounded by the inefficiencies inherent in current nutrient management approaches, where substantial proportions of applied nitrogen and phosphorus are lost to the environment, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions, water pollution, and biodiversity loss. The reliance on synthetic fertilizers, while supporting increased food production, has created dependencies that are economically and environmentally unsustainable. Furthermore, the complex interactions between soil minerals, organic matter, microbial communities, and crop plants remain incompletely understood, limiting our ability to manage nutrients effectively. As global food demand continues to rise, and arable land becomes increasingly scarce, optimizing nutrient use efficiency while maintaining soil health has emerged as a critical priority for sustainable intensification of agriculture.

The central problem this Research Topic addresses is the persistently low nutrient use efficiency in global farming systems, where substantial proportions of applied nitrogen and phosphorus are lost to the environment rather than utilized by crops, resulting in economic losses estimated at billions of dollars annually alongside severe environmental consequences including greenhouse gas emissions, water eutrophication, and biodiversity decline. This inefficiency stems from incomplete understanding of complex soil nutrient dynamics, the disruption of natural cycling processes by intensive agriculture, and the failure to integrate knowledge across scales from microbial transformations to farm-level management decisions. Recent advances offer unprecedented opportunities to address these challenges, including high-resolution sensor technologies for real-time nutrient monitoring, spectroscopic techniques for characterizing soil organic matter, metagenomic tools for understanding microbial nutrient transformations, precision application systems guided by machine learning algorithms, and circular economy approaches that recover nutrients from waste streams. By synthesizing these innovations within integrated management frameworks, we can develop context-specific strategies that enhance nutrient use efficiency, rebuild soil health, and close nutrient loops, thereby aligning agricultural productivity with environmental sustainability.

This Research Topic addresses the sustainable management of soil mineral nutrition and nutrient cycling in farmland, seeking contributions that advance understanding of nutrient dynamics and develop innovative management practices. We invite submissions exploring the physical, chemical, and biological processes governing nutrient availability, transformations, and losses in agricultural soils, alongside practical approaches to optimizing nutrient use efficiency while minimizing environmental impacts. This Research Topic invites contributions spanning from fundamental mechanistic studies to applied research, encompassing soil nutrient dynamics and cycling mechanisms, organic matter interactions with mineral nutrition, microbial mediation of nutrient transformations, and rhizosphere processes governing plant nutrient acquisition, alongside precision nutrient management technologies, integrated organic and inorganic fertilization strategies, and nutrient use efficiency assessment and improvement, while also addressing the environmental fate of nutrients including losses, emissions, and leaching, soil health indicators related to nutrient status, climate change impacts on nutrient cycling, and the socio-economic dimensions and policy frameworks necessary for advancing sustainable fertilization practices.

We invite contributions in the following formats:

• Original Research Articles: Full-length reports of empirical studies, field experiments, or technology validation

• Reviews: Comprehensive syntheses of current knowledge on specific themes

• Perspectives: Thought-provoking opinion pieces on emerging trends or controversial issues

• Policy Briefs: Concise analyses of policy implications and recommendations

• Case Reports: Detailed descriptions of specific technology applications or regional experiences

• Methods Papers: Novel methodologies, tools, or protocols for smart agricultural technologies

• Data Reports: Descriptions of significant datasets or monitoring systems

• Commentaries: Short articles on timely topics or recent developments

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
• General Commentary
• 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
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Systematic Review

Keywords: Fertilization, Nutrient cycling, Nutrient use efficiency, Soil health, Soil mineral nutrition, Sustainable agriculture

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.