The intensification of livestock farming systems can pose significant environmental challenges, including impacts on soil physicochemical properties, carbon sequestration, and biodiversity. This study is the first to quantify the combined effects of dairy system intensification and land-use allocation on soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks and physicochemical properties at the commercial farm scale. We compared confinement and pasture-based systems across five land-use types: improved pasture (IP), mixed pasture-cropping (MPC), cropping, tree areas (TA), and natural pasture (NP, exclusive to pasture-based systems). A total of 810 soil samples were collected from the top 30 cm across nine farms in New South Wales, Australia. Pasture-based farms stored 75% more SOC and 65% more total nitrogen (TN) per hectare than confinement farms, although differences were partly influenced by regional climate and parent material. Interactions between farming system and land use showed that SOC and TN stocks were highest in IP and TA within pasture-based systems. Conversely, total phosphorus (TP) stocks were 3.7 times higher in confinement systems, independent of SOC patterns. Within pasture-based farms, NP consistently had the highest SOC and TN stocks. These results highlight that dairy system intensification interacts with land-use and environmental conditions to shape soil organic carbon and nutrient stocks. The findings provide policy-relevant benchmarks for soil‑carbon accounting and emphasize the need for regionally adapted land-management strategies and future work quantifying annual SOC sequestration rates under commercial dairy conditions. • First farm-scale assessment of dairy intensification effects on soil properties. • Pasture-based systems store more soil carbon and total N than confinement farms. • Tree areas and natural pastures act as strong soil carbon hotspots. • Soil carbon land-use differences lessen in low-rainfall confinement regions. • Findings support better policy and soil‑carbon accounting for dairy systems.

Alley cropping associated with conservation tillage can promote short-term soil aggregation and carbon sequestration in European woody crops

Plant and microbial pathways driving soil carbon sequestration in dryland leguminous shrublands

Enhancing soil carbon sequestration is a pivotal strategy for mitigating global climate change. Integrating the "microbial carbon pump (MCP)" and "mineral carbon pump (MnCP)" frameworks is essential for a holistic understanding of soil organic carbon (SOC) stabilization. While biochar (BC) is a recognized carbon sequestration tool, the mechanistic pathways by which it mediates the synergy between these distinct carbon pumps remain elusive. This review synthesizes current advances to position BC as a critical "bridge" driving the coupled MCP-MnCP system. Beyond serving as recalcitrant carbon, BC strengthens the MCP by providing microbial habitats, optimizing community structure, and enhancing carbon use efficiency to promote necromass accumulation. Simultaneously, BC fortifies the MnCP via mechanisms including the formation of stable organo-mineral complexes through surface functional groups, the facilitation of microaggregate genesis, and the mediation of redox reactions. This bridging efficacy offers a novel theoretical framework for developing predictable, controllable soil carbon technologies. Furthermore, we explore the theoretical basis for integrating BC into the coupled MCP-MnCP system. Future research must prioritize cross-scale mechanistic dissection, advance the precision design of BC functionality, and incorporate its "dual carbon pump" enhancement effects into life cycle assessment frameworks to fully realize its potential in climate mitigation and sustainable agriculture.

Sustainable intensification of Brazilian pastures reconciles food security with large-scale soil carbon sequestration.

Tightened coupling of organic nitrogen and organic carbon synthesis governs integrity of soil organic matter in black soils.

Microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP) holds potential for soil stabilization and carbon sequestration efforts, with the overall efficiency of the process being a major determinant for its use in many environmental and civil engineering applications. While the biogeochemical pathways and enzymes driving MICP are known, the microbial metabolic networks and community dynamics underlying such processes remain poorly characterized. To address this gap, we interrogated a MICP-capable four-member consortium of soil bacteria (Curtobacterium flaccumfaciens, Rhodococcus qingshengii, Bacillus toyonensis and a Microbacterium species), termed carbon storing consortium - A (CSC-A). Prior work shows that CSC-A yields carbonate at a higher quantity compared to the sum of carbonate individually produced by each member, suggesting MICP is driven by community dynamics. To that end we applied a multi-omic integration approach of genomics, transcriptomics, and metabolomics to investigate potential inter-species interactions that may influence the MICP phenotype. Genomic life history characterizations identified evidence of specialization by B. toyonensis and Microbacterium, while metatranscriptomic perturbation was almost ten times greater in the absence of R. qinshengii than C.flaccumfaciens, suggesting that R. qingshengii is a keystone species when grown in urea, a molecule key to the MICP process. By comparing individual species' metabolomes to the metabolic profile of a shared well, we identified over 200 metabolites predicted to be produced or consumed by CSC-A members. Integrating both data types and mapping them to the KEGG reactome highlighted over 20 different enriched pathways with reactions related to glutamate metabolism, succinate metabolism, and branched chain amino acid biosynthesis. As succinate metabolism was a major node in this network we applied laboratory assays to confirm that additional added succinate led to increased carbonate precipitation by CSC-A, a critical validation of our modeling approach. By isolating and identifying the interconnected metabolic components underlying MICP in CSC-A, we identified keystone taxa, metabolites, and pathways important for future optimization of the application of this consortium to carbonate precipitation.

Hydrothermal humification (HTH) is emerging as a low-carbon approach for valorizing biomass into hydrothermal humic acid (HHA), a multifunctional soil amendment with potential to enhance soil carbon sequestration and climate-resilient agriculture. However, broader deployment is constrained by limited carbon-conversion efficiency and heterogeneity in HHA composition. This Review synthesizes recent advances in HTH process engineering, elucidating how operating conditions, catalytic strategies, and integrated designs govern HHA yield, molecular structure, reactivity, and stability. Comparative analysis of hydrolysis-, condensation-, and oxidation-dominated pathways reveals distinct carbon-transformation mechanisms and structure-function relationships underlying soil and plant responses. Life-cycle and technoeconomic assessments highlight pathways toward environmentally and economically viable deployment. Advancing HHA stability and field-scale integration are key frontiers for HTH. Progress toward scalable negative-emissions deployment in sustainable agro-ecosystems will require close collaboration between scientists and engineers.

Increasing aridity is predicted to alter the structure and functioning of soil food webs, yet its impacts on grassland food-web energetics and the resulting consequences for soil carbon sequestration remain poorly understood. Here, we quantified energy fluxes in soil food webs along a natural aridity gradient using data from 240 observations across 30 grassland ecosystems in the eastern Eurasian Steppe, spanning temperate (Loess and Inner Mongolian Plateaus) and alpine (Tibetan Plateau) regions. We found that increasing aridity decreases total energy flux through whole food webs across all study regions, largely driven by species losses and weakened trophic interactions. Energy flux to herbivory-based "green" channels declined more sharply than microbivory-based "brown" channels with increasing aridity, resulting in greater dominance of brown energy channels under more arid conditions across temperate grasslands. This broad-scale "browning" of soil food webs aligns with declining soil organic carbon (SOC) storage in temperate grasslands, suggesting that carbon loss through decomposition outpaces plant-derived carbon inputs under increasing aridity. In contrast, alpine grasslands showed increased SOC when the energy flux ratio of herbivory to microbivory was below the threshold of ~1, likely because lower temperatures constrain microbe-based decomposition and energy transfer to microbivory channels under more arid conditions. Understanding the context-dependent metabolic processes that underlie energy reallocation across soil food webs can augment modeling efforts to predict change to Earth's carbon cycle.

This mesocosm study evaluated the element-specific phytoremediation potential of Phyllostachys edulis (Moso bamboo) in soils co-contaminated with uranium (U) and manganese (Mn) under conditions simulating U tailings reservoirs over four growth cycles. Moso bamboo exhibited notable physiological resilience, maintaining photosynthetic functionality and membrane integrity under moderate co-contamination, alongside a upregulation of photosynthetic pigments. Although initial stress reduced leaf width and stem volume, clonal plasticity facilitated morphological recovery in the offspring. A critical finding was the stark contrast in the remediation outcomes for U and Mn. Bamboo cultivation significantly reduced topsoil U content in control and moderate contamination treatments (paired t-test, P < 0.05), and showed a decreasing trend in light contamination. Strong negative correlations (|r| > 0.78, PBH < 0.05) confirming phytostabilization coupled with limited phytoextraction‌‌ as the primary mechanism across all treatment, despite low bioaccumulation (BCF < 1). Conversely, although the plant actively accumulated Mn (BCF up to 5.3), soil Mn dynamics showed no correlation with plant uptake (|r| < 0.35, PBH > 0.1), fluctuating with contamination levels rather than decreasing due to plant removal. This provides clear evidence that successful phytoremediation depends not merely on a plant’s accumulation capacity. Despite the context-dependent dynamics of Mn, the synergy between U phytostabilization, immobilization via soil carbon sequestration, and erosion control enables Moso bamboo to promote sustainable landscape revitalization, establishing it as a multifunctional agent for U tailings remediation.

It is widely held that polyphenols accumulate in soil due to limited phenol oxidase activity, thereby inhibiting resident microbes and promoting carbon stabilization. Contradicting this paradigm, we demonstrate that bioreduced Fe(II) from iron minerals may be enriched under anaerobic conditions, which accelerates phenol decomposition. Using gallic acid (GA) as a model, the biodegradation rate was 1.6-2.2 times higher under anaerobic conditions (k = 0.021-0.26 h-1) compared to aerobic environments in bacteria (Bacillus megaterium, Lactoccus Lactis, or Shewanella putrefaciens) cocultured with iron oxides. Carbon mass balance and LC-MS analysis revealed that bacterial reduction of Fe(III) to Fe(II) shifted the GA transformation pathway from oxidative polymerization toward depolymerization, Fe(II)-complexation, and enhanced mineralization, increasing CO2 release by approximately 3-fold. These changes were positively correlated with the Fe(II)/Fe(III) ratio. Electrochemical analysis confirmed that pseudocapacitance arising from Fe(II)/Fe(III) cycling at the mineral-biofilm interface reduced charge transfer resistance (e.g., from 16.58 to 6.93 Ω·cm-2 for Fe2O3 system), accelerating GA mineralization. In contrast, aerobic conditions promoted Fe(III)-mediated phenol polymerization. Soil validation showed that the anaerobic GA degradation rate constant (k = 0.12 h-1) and cumulative CO2 production were 2 times and 1.5 times higher than under aerobic conditions, respectively. These findings challenge the classic view of polyphenol-driven carbon sequestration in saturated soils, highlighting the critical role of anaerobic microbe-mineral coupled iron redox cycling in regulating soil carbon turnover under changing redox conditions.

Converting Agricultural By-Products into a Carbon-Neutral CO2 Capture System: Biomass-Ash-Enhanced Biogas Slurry for Plant and Soil Carbon Sequestration

Combining meta-analysis and local assessment: An in-depth approach on biochar use towards soil carbon sequestration

Effective climate change mitigation through land-based strategies requires maximizing soil carbon (C) sequestration across land uses and management practices. Yet, land-use and management impacts on soil C and nitrogen (N) fractions and their distribution in soil profiles in water-limited environments remain elusive. We evaluated various labile and stable pools of soil C and N at 0–15, 15–30, and 30–60 cm depths under four long-term land uses – continuous alfalfa and tall fescue systems, a conventionally managed annual cropping system, and cottonwood orchard – to understand land use-driven changes in soil C fractions in different depths, and total profile C sequestration. Results showed that C and N fractions were allocated differently across depth layers, suggesting divergent mechanisms of C sequestration at different depths. Perennial systems increased labile and stable C pools, specifically at 0–15 cm, thereby supporting biologically mediated soil organic C (SOC) sequestration. The annual cropping system accumulated greater mineral-associated organic C (MAOC) and inorganic C at 30–60 cm, mediated by the physicochemical pathway of C formation and stabilization. At 0–60 cm, soil inorganic N and potentially mineralizable N (PMN) were 2.4–7.3 and 3.8–8.4 times higher, respectively, under annual crops than other land uses. The profile distribution of labile N and C fractions relative to MAOC played a crucial role in SOC sequestration in various depths. The potential of arid soils to sequester C varied with vegetation type and land use. Management practices should focus on optimizing the distribution of labile C and N throughout the profile to promote microbial activity and enhance soil C sequestration. • Soil profile C and N distribution varied with diverse land-use systems. • Soil mineralizable C and N significantly influenced depth-wise organic C distribution. • Perennial crops promoted soil C storage in surface soils via biological processes. • Annual cropping supported the physicochemical pathway to sequester C in subsurface soils.

Reactive oxygen species-mediated conversion of organic matter into humus: A meta-analysis on mechanisms and environmental implications.

Microplastics alter soil carbon sequestration pathways: Temporal shifts from microbial necromass to plant lignin dominance

Soil carbon sequestration exhibits differential mechanisms in two textured paddy soils under long-term green manuring

Amaranth Fortification in Pasta: A Systematic Review of Nutritional Enhancement, Processing Parameters, and Sensory Attributes Across Wheat, Semolina, and Gluten-Free Formulations.

Microbial death pathways (MDPs) are increasingly recognized as key drivers of terrestrial carbon cycling, primarily through their regulation of microbial necromass carbon (MNC), a critical pool in global carbon dynamics. Yet explicit representation of MDPs in soil organic carbon (SOC) models remains limited. Here, we developed and evaluated three SOC models that differ in their structure of MNC pool: the multiple-pathway necromass (MPN) model, which partitions microbial necromass carbon (MNC) into four MDP-derived subpools; the dual necromass (DUN) model, which differentiates two necromass pools with distinct decay rates; and the single necromass (SIN) model, which aggregates necromass into a single pool. Using a unified data assimilation framework and SOC observations from six major agricultural regions in China, we found that the MPN model consistently outperformed DUN and SIN models across most regions, producing necromass subpool dynamics, scenario responses, and parameter sensitivities that closely reflect the mechanistic understanding of MDPs. In cold or nutrient-limited regions, however, the simpler DUN model performed similarly while requiring fewer parameters, emphasizing the importance of balancing model complexity with regional ecological constraints. Our results demonstrate that explicitly incorporating MDPs enhances the robustness and mechanistic realism of SOC simulations and provides a robust foundation for more explicit representations of MDPs to assess the soil carbon sequestration potential and guide sustainable land management.

In alignment with global carbon neutrality goals, this study investigates the regulatory role of magnesium oxide (MgO) content on the macro–micro properties of carbonation-cured collapsible loess from the Hohhot region. While MgO carbonation is established for soil stabilization, the quantitative influence of MgO dosage on the specific phase evolution pathways and mechanical enhancement within the unique macro-porous fabric of aeolian loess remains poorly understood. Addressing this, we systematically examined loess specimens amended with varying MgO contents (10% to 30%) over carbonation periods up to 24 h. Unconfined compressive strength (UCS) tests, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were employed to correlate mechanical performance with mineralogical and microstructural evolution. Results indicate that MgO content acts as a primary regulator of the carbonation process. Higher MgO dosages substantially increased CO2 uptake, resulting in a significant relative mass gain—up to more than a two-fold difference between the highest and lowest content samples—and culminated in a compressive strength of 10.48 MPa for the 30% MgO specimen. Microstructural analysis revealed a distinct temporal evolution interpreted to be governed by MgO-mediated supersaturation levels. Initially, Mg(OH)2 agglomerates provided early strength, which was subsequently enhanced by the formation of a three-dimensional framework of nesquehonite, followed by the development of an interlocking skeletal network of hydromagnesite crystals. These carbonate phases enhanced loess strength via a combination of pore infilling, particle cementation, and the construction of a reinforcing micro-skeleton. This work elucidates the link between MgO content and the microstructural evolution of carbonated loess, providing new insights for the synergistic integration of soil stabilization and carbon sequestration in loess regions. The findings offer a valuable reference for engineering applications in collapsible soil environments under the context of sustainable development.