Soil compaction under no-till system is considered a serious concern. To solve this problem has been used the mechanical and biological (plants with deep and aggressive rooting system) chiselling. Evaluating a soil physical quality index, we observed to be unnecessary both mechanical and biological chiselling. It is implies in reduction on the production costs since the mechanical chiselling is an expensive operation besides maintaining the no-till system undisturbed.

Food production must increase to accompany population growth, but based on the conservation of natural resources. No tillage is a way of planting crops that preserves the soil, controlling erosion but some soil properties do not necessary evolve favourably. Results of this assay showed that better management practices such as controlled agricultural traffic and crop rotations maximising living roots (e.g. cover crops, double cropping) are recommended to attain sustainable soil management under continuous no-till farming.

Soil CO₂ emissions are five times higher than those produced by burning fossil fuels, however, there are a lack of knowledge of its drivers. Climate factors have a key influence, but under Mediterranean climate, this influence could not be explaining by usual models. Gaussian approximations were better than linear ones, and climate factors synergy was the key in respiration variability. In soil respiration process, Mediterranean could be the exception that proves the rule or which put it into question.

Hydroxy-interlayered vermiculite (HIV) is a neo-formed clay species in soils, and its occurrence is closely related to paleoclimate. Hence, HIV mineralogy can be used as a proxy to reveal the evolution of the local environmental conditions in response to global climatic changes. However, only a few comprehensive investigations have so far been carried out on HIV mineralogy due to its minor presence in soils. HIV occurs abundantly in Jiujiang red earth, which provides a perfect opportunity to characterise HIV and decipher climatic information in soils.

Rising temperature is expected to affect soil nitrogen cycling of terrestrial ecosystems. This study found that the conversion from natural forest to spruce plantation reduces soil nitrogen mineralisation and natural forest is more sensitive to warming compared to plantation. The differences in nitrogen mineralisation between the two forest soils were substantially larger than warming-induced responses, implying that reforestation might be more important than soil temperature in regulating soil nitrogen mineralisation on the eastern Tibetan Plateau.

Salinity is a stressor for plants and soil microbes. Salinity adaptation in microbes can be due to synthesis of organic osmolytes, but this is a very energy-consuming process. In soil, microbes are limited by available C. In this study, 0–5 g C kg^–1 was added to soils with EC_1:5 of 0.1, 1.1, 3.1 and 5.2 dS m^–1. Over the study period of three weeks, glucose addition reduced the negative effect of salinity on soil respiration and microbial biomass.

Long-term intensive management led to severe soil erosion and significant soil organic carbon content decrease in Chinese hickory stands. Intercropping (rape, ryegrass or Chinese milk vetch) could increase soil nutrients and soil organic carbon, and improve microbial community function. It is confirmed that sod cultivation is an effective way to improve soil quality and eliminate detrimental effects of clean tillage in Chinese hickory production.

Earthworms may play a major role in nutrient recycling in low-input tropical soils. We studied the effect of three earthworm species in two tropical soils with different organic matter content and quality, and found that earthworm activity increased soil microbial activity, and nitrogen and phosphorus availability, mainly in the more fertile soil. Inputs of labile organic matter are likely to be required to further increase nutrient availability in the infertile tropical soil.

Understanding food web structure of serpentine soils is important, since they are naturally metalliferous and hostile to most plants and animals. Exploring soil variables under the few stunted shrubs of a serpentine Mediterranean ecosystem revealed that the features of the nematode community reflected the hostility and heterogeneity of serpentine soils better than other most commonly used variables, e.g. organic matter, microbial biomass or heavy metal and nutrient concentrations. This makes nematodes a must for plant-soil interaction studies in serpentine ecosystems.

Vineyard soil nematodes are microscopic worm-like organisms that can act as friend or foe: beneficial nematodes decompose organic matter and transform nutrients in plant available forms, whereas parasitic nematodes cause serious disease. We found that organic soil amendments (biochar, composts and rice hulls) increased the ratio of beneficial to parasitic nematodes associated with grapevine roots. This discovery will benefit the wine industry by offering a management option for decreasing the effects of parasitic nematodes without using expensive, environmentally harmful chemicals.