Agricultural production is faced with many challenges currently. These includes climate change, rising human populations, declining soil productivity and increasing poverty levels in many parts of the world. Besides, there are increasing concerns over the use of synthetic chemicals in food production and attendant residual effects with serious implications on environmental and human health. 

The Lead Guest Editor

Felix D. Ugese

Climate change and its impact on the sustainability of agricultural soil are current concerns of many countries around the world.The potential impact of climate (i)soil fertility,both conventional and biological,(ii)Erosion phenomena,(iii)microorganisms and soil health.In fact,there are many things we need to know more about.How climate change will affect the N cycle and ,in turn ,how that will affect C sequestration in soils is a major research need,as is a better understanding of how erosion processes will be influenced by changes in climate.The response of plants to elevated atmospheric CO2 given limitations in nutrients like N and P,and how that will influence soil organic matter levels,is another critical research need.

The Lead Guest Editor

Néji Tarchoun

Probe - Agrophysics is an international Open Access journal which aims to communicate to its readers, state-of-the-art technologies and methods on Agrophysics. The journal welcomes original researches, reviews and important applications of Agrophysics.

The journal publishes original research and review papers on any subject regarding soil, plant and atmosphere and the interface in between.

The Lead Guest Editor

Hassan Benfetta

Thirteen protocols on greenhouse gas flux and ancillary measurements at terrestrial ecosystems have been published in a dedicated issue of the open-access journal International Agrophysics. These protocols describe the current agreed methodology for assessing the greenhouse gas exchange in the terrestrial ecosystem types that are most relevant for Europe.

The protocols are published in the format of scientific articles explaining the purpose and scientific background of the measurements and justifying the choice of the method. They include a general introduction on ICOS, in particular of its ecosystem domain.

The Ecosystem Thematic Centre (ETC) took the lead in writing four of the thirteen documents, lead authoring the protocols on soil-meteorological measurements (Dr. Maarten Op de Beeck), ancillary measurements (Dr. Bert Gielen), sampling and collecting foliage elements (Prof. Dr. Denis Loustau) and eddy covariance raw data processing (Dr. Simone Sabbatini).

For the practical implementation of the protocols, complementary step-by-step instruction documents were developed by the ETC, which can be found on the ETC website.

Many thanks to the ecosystem community for this huge achievement!

Find the protocols here.

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