Soil Biodiversity and Nutrient Cycling for Resilient and Regenerative Agricultural Systems

Agricultural systems are under increasing pressure to deliver food security while reducing environmental impacts, enhancing climate resilience, and sustaining livelihoods. Simplified production systems and heavy reliance on external inputs have, in many contexts, eroded the ecological processes that underpin long-term productivity and stability. Consequently, biodiversity is gaining recognition not only as a conservation priority but as a critical functional component of resilient agroecosystems. In particular, soil biodiversity is emerging as a foundational dimension of agroecosystem performance, encompassing microbial communities, mycorrhizal networks, soil fauna, and rhizosphere interactions that regulate nutrient cycling, soil structure, carbon dynamics, and plant health. This Research Topic specifically seeks to advance the mechanistic and applied understanding of how soil biodiversity can be managed and mobilized as a productive asset in sustainable agricultural systems.This Research Topic welcomes contributions that examine how diversity across crops, livestock, soil organisms, pollinators, and farm habitats functions as living infrastructure to support essential ecosystem services, including pollination, biological pest control, nutrient cycling, soil health, water regulation, and disease suppression. We particularly encourage studies that explicitly link these processes to outcomes relevant for sustainable food systems, such as reduced dependence on external inputs, enhanced climate and economic resilience, sustained productivity, and broader landscape-scale benefits, including improved water quality and carbon sequestration.We invite empirical, conceptual, methodological, and participatory research that advances the understanding of biodiversity as a driver of multifunctionality in agricultural systems. Contributions may explore synergies and trade-offs among ecosystem services, as well as the environmental, management, socioeconomic, and governance conditions shaping their delivery across diverse agroecological contexts. Submissions that integrate belowground and aboveground biodiversity, bridge scales from the rhizosphere to landscapes and connect ecological processes to real-world farming outcomes are particularly encouraged.Themes of interest include, but are not limited to:- Biodiversity as a production input: designing farming systems to harness ecological functions in place of external inputs- Functional biodiversity and ecosystem service bundles: synergies and trade-offs among pollination, pest control, soil fertility, and water regulation- Soil biodiversity and nutrient cycling: microbial communities, mycorrhizae, earthworms, organic amendments, and regenerative fertility strategies, carbon sequestration, nutrient use efficiency, and rhizosphere interactions- Diversified cropping systems: rotations, intercropping, relay cropping, varietal mixtures, and yield stability- Agroforestry and perennial systems: biodiversity outcomes, productivity, carbon storage, and microclimate regulation- Habitat management on farms: hedgerows, field margins, riparian buffers, wetlands, and landscape connectivity- Biological control and integrated pest management: natural enemies, habitat provisioning, and reduced pesticide dependence- Pollinator diversity and crop production: pollination reliability under land-use and climate pressures- Disease regulation in diversified systems: soil-borne disease suppression, crop-livestock integration, and landscape-scale dynamics- Climate resilience and biodiversity: buffering against drought, heat, and floods, recovery from extreme events, and adaptation pathways- Biodiversity metrics and monitoring: functional traits, eDNA, remote sensing, and farmer-friendly indicators- Socioeconomic and governance dimensions: incentives, adoption barriers, policy design, and equity outcomes- Case studies and scaling: place-based evidence, participatory research, and pathways to broader uptake- Food system impacts: links to livelihoods, nutrition, certification, and sustainability transition Topic editors: Dr. Simran Saini, Dr Pratibha Chib, Dr. Girish Dangi Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/79772/soil-biodiversity-and-nutrient-cycling-for-resilient-and-regenerative-agricultural-systems