Soil Use and Management

Soil Use and Management provides an international forum for original papers in the field of practical uses of soil science. Soil Use and Management provides an international forum for those applying scientific principles to understand and solve important soil problems as they affect crop production and environmental issues.

Soil Use and Management aims to communicate an understanding of management techniques for the sustainable use of land. Papers taking a broad view of 'use' and 'management' covering agriculture, forestry and amenity provision are accepted. The journal is edited on behalf of the British Society of Soil Science by Prof Donald Davidson, University of Stirling.

Four issues are published per year - containing highly relevant, original research.

Topics covered include:

• Environmental protection
• Soil-crop interactions
• Soil erosion and conservation
• Pollution control
• Restoration and reclamation of land
• Evaluation of soil surveys
• Development of methodology

For further information about SU&M please go to the Wiley-Blackwell Publishing website

SUM Index

SUM Virtual Issues

Soils and Nitrous Oxide Research

This journal has as its core objective the publication of important papers on the use and management of soils. It has created a distinct niche through providing support for professionals concerned with soil management. The journal is also an important resource for teaching applied soil science in higher education. The topical and applied nature of the papers make the journal popular with students. The journal has been published since 1985, so there are now many papers of potential importance for the support of teaching in universities and colleges. I have discussed with Wiley-Blackwell how access for students and others to this resource could be improved and one approach is the provision of Virtual Special Issues.

Published alongside Volume 26 Issue 2 of Soil Use and Management is our first Virtual Special Issue which draws together published papers on N2O emissions from soils. I am very grateful to Bob Rees and Bruce Ball for making this compilation and writing an introduction; they 'have highlighted some of the more important papers on N2O that have been published by Soil Use and Management, and explain how they have helped advance our understanding of the role that soil management plays in influencing N2O emissions.' I welcome comments on this initiative and any offers for compiling other Virtual Special Issues. Donald A. Davidson - Editor: Soil Use and Management

Key Papers in Soil Use and Management

For readers of Soil Use and Management, there is convenience in having an easily accessible collection of already published papers in the form of a virtual special issue. This has already been done for the topic 'Soils and Nitrous Oxide Research' and the hope is that such a collation is of particular help to students. This second virtual special issue has a different objective - to present a range of key papers published in the last 10 years. There is an obvious major challenge in selecting 26 papers considered to be the key ones out of a total of c. 450! The adopted and unbiased method was to choose the top papers in terms of citations and electronic downloads. This has proved to be an interesting exercise since it has revealed the following current major themes in applied soil science: nitrate loss to water, phosphorus loss to water, carbon emissions and sequestration, nitrous oxide emissions, soil and organic farming, soil management and microbial biomass and soil degradation. These headings have been used to organise the papers in this virtual issue. It is interesting to reflect on the extent to which the papers published during 1985-95 in Soil Use and Management accord with current themes. Yes, there is much overlap though in the first 10 years there were relatively more papers on soil survey and land evaluation, soil erosion, soil acidification and soil drainage. Today many papers in the journal continue to focus on the nature, implications and management of soil processes, often with soil organic matter as the central concern.

Donald A. Davidson - Editor: Soil Use and Management