Research news on soil sciences

Soil sciences are a cluster of scientific disciplines focused on the physical, chemical, biological, and mineralogical properties and processes of soils as natural bodies and as dynamic systems within the critical zone. They encompass soil genesis and classification (pedology), soil physics (water, gas, energy transport), soil chemistry (ion exchange, sorption, redox, nutrient cycling), and soil biology and ecology (microbial and faunal communities, decomposition, biogeochemical transformations). Soil sciences provide quantitative frameworks for understanding soil functions in terrestrial ecosystems, including carbon and nutrient cycling, plant growth support, contaminant fate, and regulation of hydrological processes, and underpin evidence-based management in agriculture, forestry, environmental remediation, and climate research.