Methodological Innovations, Microbial Mechanisms, and Sustainable Management

Nitrogen is central to soil fertility, crop productivity, ecosystem functioning, and global environmental change. However, intensifying anthropogenic nitrogen inputs have profoundly altered soil nitrogen cycling, resulting in cascading consequences such as the greenhouse effect, destruction of the ozone layer, nitrate contamination of groundwater, eutrophication of water bodies, soil acidification, and biodiversity loss. These impacts pose significant risks to human health and socioeconomic development. Addressing these challenges requires methodological innovations in nitrogen cycling research, a deeper process-level understanding of nitrogen transformations and their associated microbial mechanisms, and advanced strategies for sustainable nitrogen management across diverse soil ecosystems. 

This special issue aims to bring together cutting-edge studies that decipher soil nitrogen cycling from methodological, process-based, microbial, environmental, and management perspectives. We welcome original research articles, reviews, perspectives, and case studies that provide novel insights into nitrogen transformation processes, microbial mechanisms, environmental consequences, and sustainable nitrogen management in agricultural, forest, grassland, wetland, urban, and other terrestrial ecosystems. 

The main objective of this Special Issue is to advance an integrated understanding of global soil nitrogen cycling by linking methodological innovation, mechanistic process quantification, microbial ecology, environmental consequences, and sustainable management strategies. Contributions should ideally move beyond descriptive measurements of nitrogen pools and provide mechanistic or quantitative insights into nitrogen transformation processes including nitrogen fixation, mineralization, nitrification, denitrification, and emerging nitrogen cycling pathways, as well as the microbial regulation of these processes, their coupling with other biogeochemical cycles, and the development of more effective strategies for nitrogen stewardship. 

This Special Issue is organized in connection with the 23rd World Congress of Soil Science, WCSS2026, to be held in Nanjing, China in June 2026, and the 10th International Nitrogen Conference, N2026, to be held in Japan in November 2026. We particularly welcome submissions derived from WCSS2026 and N2026 presentations and discussions, as well as contributions from the wider research community that address the scientific scope of this Special Issue. 

Topics suitable for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to:

i) Methodological innovations in soil nitrogen cycling research

ii) Microbial mechanisms of nitrogen transformation processes

iii) Emerging and overlooked nitrogen cycling pathways

iv) Coupling of nitrogen with carbon, phosphorus, iron, and other elemental cycles

v) Modeling, scaling, and prediction of nitrogen fluxes

vi) Sustainable nitrogen management and governance

Guest editors

Dr. William R. Horwath, Professor
University of California, Davis, USA
E-Mail: wrhorwath@ucdavis.edu 

Dr. Kentaro Hayashi, Professor
Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Japan
E-Mail: kentaroh@chikyu.ac.jp 

Dr. Kazuya Nishina, Professor
National Institute of Environmental Study, Japans
E-Mail: nishina.kazuya@nies.go.jp

Dr. Atsushi Hayakawa, Professor
Akita Prefectural University, Japan
E-Mail: hayakawa@akita-pu.ac.jp 

Dr. Jun Shan, Professor
Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
E-Mail: shanjun@issas.ac.cn

Dr. Emma Liang, Professor
University of Melbourne, Australia
E-Mail: liang.xia@unimelb.edu.au

Submission Deadline

The deadline for manuscript submissions is 31 December 2026, but we can accommodate extensions on a case-by-case basis. All papers will be published as open access articles upon acceptance, and the APC is free of charge. 

Submission Instructions

Manuscripts should be prepared according to the guidelines of Nitrogen Cycling and submitted through the journal's online submission system. All submitted papers will undergo a rigorous peer-review process.