Agroforestry for Sustainable Soil Management

Dear Colleagues,

The establishment of plant production systems that are more sustainable than conventional agricultural systems is the vision of future agriculture. Agroforestry systems, which combine trees with crops or livestock, have numerous environmental benefits over conventional agricultural systems while maintaining agricultural productivity. The environmental benefits of agroforestry systems include reduced wind speed and soil erosion, conservation of biodiversity, reduced nutrient leaching, and increased soil fertility, all which could, in turn, increase plant productivity. The benefits of agroforestry for soil health are particularly important as fertile soils become a precious resource.

Trees in agroforestry systems have the potential to reduce nutrient leaching by taking up nutrients below the rooting zone of crops. These otherwise lost nutrients are incorporated into the biomass of these trees and reenter the soil via tree litter, a mechanism referred to as “nutrient pumping”. Furthermore, agroforestry has been shown to improve soil fertility by increasing the soil organic carbon stocks and available nutrients. Additionally, agroforestry systems were shown to promote above- and belowground biodiversity by increasing habitat complexity. Finally, trees in agroforestry systems are physical barriers that effectively reduce wind speed aboveground and improve soil structure belowground, thereby contributing to reducing soil erosion. Overall, agroforestry systems are climate resilient agricultural systems that contribute to the mitigation of climate change.

Agroforestry is a promising alternative to conventional agriculture; however, since a large number of different systems fall under the umbrella of agroforestry (e.g., alley cropping, shelterbelts, cacao agroforestry) and the spatial extend of agroforestry is still limited in some regions, several types of agroforestry systems as well as their contributions to soil health are still understudied. Therefore, this Special Issue invites scholars to submit their work (original research and review articles) on the impacts of agroforestry on the soil ecosystem.

Topics of interest for the Special Issue include but are not limited to:

• temperate agroforestry systems
• tropical agroforestry systems
• silvoarable systems
• silvopastoral systems
• sustainable soil management
• improvement of soil physical, chemical, and biological fertility
• conservation of soil biodiversity
• reduction of wind speed and soil erosion
• impact on nutrient leaching
• climate change mitigation through agroforestry

Dr. Lukas Beule
Dr. Camille D'Hervilly
Dr. Maren Langhof
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• agroforestry
• tree-based intercropping
• soil management
• sustainability
• soil fertility
• climate change
• resilience
• soil erosion
• soil biodiversity