Biological invasions are considered a serious threat to natural ecosystems. Considering that soil biota play vital roles in shaping plant communities and the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems more attention must be shown to assessing invasion impacts on soil biota. This study showed that invasive plant species partly mediated plant–soil interaction during their life cycle. Understanding the effects of invasive species could significantly help reduce invasive species infestation and increase the success of restoration projects in disturbed areas.

Nitrogen management in low-fertility sandy soils combining nitrogen inputs from stubble and fertiliser is essential to meet wheat demand and maintain soil fertility. We evaluated wheat nitrogen uptake in different stubble treatments with or without nitrogen fertiliser in sandy soils, and found that fertiliser supply was critical to meet plant demand at early growth stages, although representing a small proportion of wheat uptake. This has implications for better management decisions towards synchrony of nitrogen inputs and plant demand in fragile environments.

Conversion of natural land to vineyard-use enhanced available nutrients, likely through degradation of soil organic matter. Conventional management had the greatest impact on soil microbial communities, the sustainable vineyard management practices created conditions most similar to the natural soils, and organic vineyard management had an intermediate impact. Although the impact of management on standard indicators of soil fertility was reflected in changes in soil microbiology, fungal diversity was a better indicator than bacterial diversity for discriminating between management types.

Dung deposited on soils by livestock contains nutrients and pathogens, which enter freshwater either directly in runoff or indirectly by leaching into groundwater, following rain or irrigation. Tunnelling dung beetles feed dung to their young, moving dung from the soil surface by building tunnels and burying the dung at depth where eggs are laid. This activity reduces the potential for dung to contaminate runoff and does not appear to increase the risk of contaminant leaching in soils of volcanic origin.

Mineral transformations in soils are important pathways for assessing pedogenesis. These transformations can be studied effectively through soil micromorphology. In tephra soils of Mount Manengouba, it is observed that kaolinitisation of biotite is more effective in assessing pedogenesis compared with iddingsitisation of olivine.

We show how two plantation-grown tree species, a softwood and a hardwood, contribute to soil stabilisation. The augmented soil cohesion strength due to the presence of roots was calculated. The softwood species provided relatively more strength to the soil than the hardwood species, but in general the potential contribution of both species to soil stability was much smaller than that reported for native stands.

Increasing use of herbicides may result in health hazards to human and livestock populations. The impact of conservation agriculture systems, largely recommended for better soil health, on the persistence of the pre-emergence herbicide pendimethalin was assessed in different cropping systems in a light-textured soil from a semiarid region. The conservation agriculture system improved soil properties over the conventional system and led to increase in persistence of the applied herbicide pendimethalin.

Central Spain is a semiarid region where rain-fed crop yields are low because of limited precipitation. Using the reservoir tillage tool to perform depressions on the soil surface, the holes’ internal surfaces are consolidated in such a way that the water is held and so percolates into the soil, thus increasing soil water retention. The results of the experiment showed that reservoir tillage offers higher soil moisture content than minimum tillage.