Soil Journals Editors Workshop

International Symposium on Element Biogeochemistry and Key Microbial Processes in Terrestrial Ecosystem

24-26 May, 2018

The Institute of Subtropical Agriculture

The Chinese Academy of Sciences

Welcome from the Conference Chair

China is becoming one of worldwide leader in soil science research. Consequently various Chinese researchers want to publish their cutting edge research in International Soil Science Journals. Numerous manuscripts or publications have been recently produced in China, while the authors have been facing huge challenges in dealing with the reviewing process and achieving the standards of written English for the journal requirements/acceptances. We are therefore going to organize a workshop that will bring together editors from the top soil science journals that cover a range of aspects of soil science.

The aim of this Soil Journal Editor Meeting is to help authors from China to gain a better understanding of the publication process from the point view of the editorial system. The editors are welcomed and encouraged to give invited talks to students or junior scientists, at the three institutes listed below, to introduce their journal and to look into the types of things that authors should and should not do to get their manuscripts accepted in a selected or targeted soil science journal. We believe that this workshop would offer great opportunities not only for the editors to gain the knowledge about China, including the current status of Chinese scientists, research environment and progress, but also for the Chinese colleagues to know the specific requirements from the international peer-review process and the editors’ responsibilities.

Prof. Dr.,Jinshui Wu

Director of ISA, CAS

Workshop Schedule

May 24th, 2018

Arrive in Changsha by high-speed train and visit Changsha Research Station for Agricultural & Environmental Monitoring, ISA, CAS.

Registration–Longhua International Hotel

Friday Morning, May 25th, 2018

Friday Afternoon, May 25th, 2018

May 26th, 2017

Leave

Main Organizers:

Institute of Subtropical Agriculture,Chinese Academic of Sci

Youth Innovation Promotion Association, IAS

Key Laboratory of Agro-Ecological Processes in Subtropical Region, CAS Southern Regional Collaborative Innovation Center for Grain and Oil Crops in China

Other Organizers:

Changsha Agricultural Environment Monitoring Station,Chinese Academy of Science,ISA-CAS and UWA Joint Laboratory for Soil Systems Biology

Local Contacts:

Tida Ge, ISA, CAS, Changsha

Email: gtd@isa.ac.cn, Tel：86-18673122782

Zhenke Zhu, ISA, CAS, Changsha

Email: zhuzhenke@isa.ac.cn, Tel：86-18175130827

Mouliang Xiao, ISA, CAS, Changsha

Email: xmlacy@126.com, Tel：86-15580902743

Brief Introduction of Invited Editors (in alphabetical order) 

LIANG Chao --- Subject Editor of Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Liang Chao is now serving as a professorship position in the Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He earned his Ph.D in Soil Science from the University of Wisconsin at Madison (2008), followed by postdoctoral research at the U.S. DOE-sponsored Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center and the U.S. Argonne National Laboratory. His academic focus is to understand how microbial behavior/adaptation/survival in soils may act as a bottleneck and impact the functioning of natural and managed ecosystems. He strongly believes a greater understanding of the mechanistic control of microorganisms in soil carbon cycling can have far-reaching impacts on global climate and ecosystem models, and design of future relevant research. His efforts have been recognized over the years by receipt of honors and awards from the United States, China, and Germany. Recently, he was awarded a Distinguished Scientist for High-caliber Talent in Science by Chinese Academy of Sciences, and also awarded a Humboldt Research Fellowship for Experienced Researchers by Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany. He is now serving as a Subject Editor for a scientific journal: Soil Biology and Biochemistry.

Karl Ritz --- Editor-in-Chief of Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Professor Karl Ritz is the chief scientist of soil biology in the British Institute of soil resources, who has been studying the interaction of soil, plants, soil microbes and fungi for a long time. He had been in 2000-2007 Years as Deputy editor in chief of Soil Science Plant Nutrition, FEMS Microbiology Ecology, Encyclopedia of Soils in Environment, current editor in chief of SBB. His research interest is to study the controlling factors of the composition and spatial structure of soil microbial communities. These work can consolidate the main control factors of soil bioactivity, establish a management system for sustainable use of soil biological functions, and establish a regulation for soil health assessment and monitoring.

Margaret A. Oliver --- Editor-in-Chief of European Journal of Soil Science

Margaret Oliver did her first degree in Geography and Geology at the University of Bristol, followed by a PhD in soil science at the University of Birmingham. Her early research focused on the multivariate and geostatistical analysis of soil data from the Wyre Forest, The Midlands, England. Since then her research interests have included the application of a wide range of numerical and geostatistical methods to soil and other data including pollen counts, forestry, radon emission, remotely sensed imagery, precision agriculture and the incidence of childhood cancer. Specific interests are in sample design for spatial analysis and eventual mapping, risk analysis associated with prescribed thresholds in relation to soil pollutants or deficiencies of crop nutrients, and the relations between different scales of spatial variation. Most recent research has been in the field of precision agriculture. She was Deputy Editor of the European Journal of Soil Science for four years and took over as Editor-in-Chief in 2015. She was also Co-Editor-in-Chief of Precision Agriculture with John Stafford for six years until the end of 2010, and she still remains on the Editorial Board.

Paolo Nannipieri --- Editor-in-Chief of Biology and Fertility of Soils

He has taken the Degree in Biological Sciences in December 1969 and he has been a post doc (1970-1972) and then a researcher at the Institute for Soil Chemistry, National Research Council, Pisa (1972-1986); he has covered the Chair of Soil Chemistry at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of  Tuscia, Viterbo (1986-1990). He has covered the Chair of Agricultural Biochemistry at the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Firenze and he has been the Head of the Department of Agrifood and Environmental Sciences and the Department of Agrifood Production and Environmental Sciences. He has nominated Emeritus Professor in November 2017. Also, he is author and co-author of about 250 pubblications (one in Nature), mostly in International Scientific Journals. He is the editor of five books; the recent ones are: Nannipieri P, Pietramellara G, Renella G (2014) Omics in Soil Science. Caster Academic Press, Norfolk, UK; Garcia C, Nannipieri P, Hernandez T (2018), The future of Soil Carbon Elsevier, Cambridge, MA. Paolo Nannipieri has been invited as keynote speaker at many National and International Meetings. He has carried out long-term stays in Canada and USA. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Biology and Fertility of Soils and it is member of the Editorial Board of Arid Soil Research and Rehabilitation.

FU Shenglei --- Editor-in-Chief of Soil Ecology Letter 

In September 1996, he studied in the Institute of ecology, University of Georgia, and received his doctorate in ecology in December 1999. From 2000 to 2004, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, serving as a full-time researcher and project scientist. Now he is the chief scientist of the Southern China botanical garden soil ecology innovation group, and is a candidate for the Southern China botanical garden "100 person plan". Research directions include ecosystem ecology, soil ecology and restoration ecology. The main research interests include the response of plant and soil organisms to the "greenhouse effect" and its feedback, and the interaction between organisms in the ecosystem food network. During the United States, he served as a leading scientist in two projects of the National Natural Science Foundation (NSF) and the United States Department of agriculture (USDA). During the stay in the US, 14 papers on SCI were published, of which 5 were published in a journal of agroforestry.

GE Tida --- Associate Editor of Soil Science Society of America Journal 

Professor Tida Ge, the winner of Newton Advanced fellowship, National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars from NSFC, Member of CAS Youth Innovation Promotion Association. Tida Ge’s main area of research has focused on understanding below-ground processes with specific focus on nutrients behaviour in soil-plant-microbial systems. Ge’s current work also included carbon sequestration in paddy agricultural systems, the mechanistic understanding of carbon fluxes and pools in plant-soil systems by isotopic tracing techniques, particulate organic carbon in farm systems. Another aspect of research currently undertaken by Professor Ge is the mitigation of methane and nitrous oxide with rice straw incorporation in paddy soils. He has attained important achievements in carbon sequestration in paddy soils. Up to now, he has published more than 30 SCI-indexed papers in international top journals, such as Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, Soil Biology and Biochemistry, Environmental and Experimental Botany, Plant and Soil, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, etc.

William R. Horwath --- Technical Editor of Soil Science Society of America Journal

William Horwath joined the University of California Davis, Department of Land, Air and Water Resources faculty in 1996 after 3 years as a Research Scientist at the United States Department of Agriculture Research Service in Corvallis, OR.  He completed his undergraduate education at Southern Illinois University in Forestry Environmental Impact Assessment and two Ph.Ds. in Soil Science and Forest Ecology from Michigan State University at East Lansing.  He has been the Director of the Sustainable Agriculture Farming System project and Associate Director of the Russell Ranch Sustainable Agricultural Facility.  He has served as vice chair of the UC Davis Department of Land, Air and Water Resources. He now serves as the Chairman of the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources.  He is the Master Faculty Advisor of the Sustainable Agriculture Food Systems undergraduate major.  He served as chairman of the Agriculture and Environmental Chemistry Graduate Group.  In 2008, Professor Horwath received the distinguished honour of the J. G. Boswell Endowed Chair in Soil Science.  In 2009, Professor Horwath received the honour of Fellow in the Soil Science Society of America. He has written and published extensively in the areas of soil sustainability, forest ecology and the environment with over 225 publications in scientific journals and books. He is an active member, with extensive committee and technical editor responsibilities for the Soil Science Society of America and the Elsevier Development in Soil Science Series. He is internationally known for his work in soil organic carbon dynamics, climate change effects on agriculture and forests and is a leader in sustainable agriculture science.

HE Xinhua --- Section Editor of Plant and Soil

Professor He is currently professor of Southwestern University and director of soil biology research center, and associate professor of University of Sydney and The University of Western Australia. The scientific research projects are the national key research and development program, the national foundation of China, the national foundation of the United States and the Ministry of agriculture. The Australian National Research Council and the Federal Ministry of education and the grain research and development organization and the Japan Society for the promotion of science and other funds. Important results have been obtained in mycorrhizal fungi to promote two-way nitrogen transfer among plants, improve soil aggregate structure, increase soil carbon accumulation and plant resistance to plant resistance, and nitrogen use efficiency of C3 and C4 crops, and put forward some new insights. He has been the Editorial Committee of 3 international periodicals (1994-2015), and the current Plant and Soil Editorial Committee (2007- today), regular / irregular for the National Natural Foundation (NSFC), Australia (ARC, GRDC), the United Kingdom (BBSRC sLoLa), the United States (NSF, USDA) and Holland (NWO) and other evaluation papers and more than 80 kinds of English journals review manuscripts.

XU Xinliang --- Associate Editor of Rhizosphere

From 2004 to 2006, a post-doctoral study was done at the ecological network center of the Institute of geographical science and resources of the Academy of Sciences. After the station, the center of the resources and environmental science data center of the Institute of geography resources of the Chinese Academy of Sciences worked so far. Research fields and research directions: Remote sensing and GIS applications, land use / land cover change and its environmental effects, and integrated monitoring and assessment of terrestrial ecosystems. Participated in or chaired some important projects of the National Natural Science Foundation, the national science and technology support, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other ministries and commissions of the country.

Yakov Kuzyakov --- Subject Editor of Land Degradation and Development

Professor Yakov Kuzyakov was awarded as foreign experts of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, high end foreign experts, and professor of University of Gottingen, a famous soil ecologist, have been qualified as the highest level professor in Germany. More than 20 years of experience in the application of radioisotope and stable isotope technology to soil carbon and nitrogen cycling. He has been devoted to the transformation and migration of carbon and nitrogen in soil plant soil atmosphere, especially in the initiation effect and the carbon rhizosphere process of the root soil interface. He has hosted over 30 scientific research projects (including 15 German science foundation projects) and published more than 160 SCI papers, including more than 20 articles. The total reference number of the paper is over 4100 times, and the H index is 30. Editor in chief of the European Journal of soil biology; editorial editor of plant and soil; Editorial Board of global change biology, soil biology and biochemistry.

LI Yong  --- Editor-in-Chief of Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 

Professor Yong Li, Editor-in-Chief for AGEE, serves as a Professor in the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Guangxi University. His research activities focus on the use of nuclear and isotopic techniques in better understanding of mechanisms and factors controlling land degradation, the impact of agricultural land use and management changes on soil erosion, sedimentation and carbon dynamics, as well as on agricultural non-point source pollution.  

WU Young  --- Senior Manager of Wiley Press.

She is currently Senior Manager for Open Access and Journal Editorial Development at Wiley. Prior to joining Wiley, Young worked at Elsevier for 7 years across different STMJ departments with various positions. At Elsevier, she was responsible for journal management, editorial development and engagement, content acquisition along with launching new journals for portfolios across subject areas. It includes managing all Elsevier soil sciences journals for 3+ years. Additionally, she was involved in several training initiatives abroad, such as Elsevier Research without Borders program where she shared journal publishing expertise in Africa.

LUO Yu  --- Associate Editor of Biogeoscience 

Luo Yu is currently working in the College of Environmental & Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University. He worked at Rothamsted Research, UK, during his PhD, mainly focus on soil organic C mineralization and microbial mechanisms involved. He is now doing the research on SOM turnover (using isotopic technique) and microbial mechanisms (adopting metagenomics and SIP), and expanded abroad research experience with traverlling and working in La Trobe University (Australia), Gottingen University (Germany), Edinburgh University (UK), and some other leading soil institudes or Universities. His research area covers mainly on Isotope Ecology, Microbial Community, Soil Organic Matter turnover, with leading 2 projects from National Science Foundation of China and some other international coorperation fundings with Germany, Italy and Australia. In the past 5 years he has produced several publications from the top soil journals including SBB, EJSS, BFS. Also, he was often invited as reviewer for journals, like, SBB, GCB, BFS, Plant Soil, etc. He is the guest Editor of Journal of Integrative Agriculture, Submission Editor of Journal of Soils and Sediments, and Associate Editor in the journal of Biogeosciences.

Brief Introduction of Invited Speakers (in alphabetical order)

Bahar S. Razavi--- Institute of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science, University of Kiel

Bahar S. Razavi currently is an assistant professor in Kiel University, Germany. On January 2017, she graduated with summa cum laude awarded as the best dissertation of year in whole province under supervision of Prof. Kuzyakov, and thereafter, she continued her research as a postdoc at the Dept. of Agricultural Soil Science, Georg-August-University of G？ttingen. Simultaneously, she was awarded by various competitive awards. Since conferral of her PhD, she has successfully built up her own research group by leading 9 projects and supervising 15 active and ambitious young researchers.

The main focus of her research is on interactions between plants, soils and microorganisms in agricultural and natural ecosystems with special emphasis on organic matter decomposition, rhizosphere functions and fluxes of root-derived C. Using novel, self developed analytical tools, she has been working on the crucial role of root exudates on nutrient acquisition under extreme conditions. The application of this approach in combination with stable and radioactive isotopes to trace C and N fluxes allow her to publish more than 20 papers in leading journals of soil and environmental sciences with a commendable h-index of 9 and a highly cited paper.

Hao Chen --- Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Hao Chen is an associate professor in the Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences. His research interests focus on soil biogeochemical cycles of karst ecosystems and their responses to global changes, including elevated nitrogen deposition and temperature. His relevant work have been published in Functional Ecology, Global Biogeochemical Cycles, Environmental Pollution, Biogeosciences, Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment, European Journa l of Soil Science, Geoderma, etc.

SHEN Jianlin --- Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Jianlin Shen, Associate Professor, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He has being engaged in studies on nitrogen deposition monitoring and modelling, nitrogen deposition effects and greenhouse gas emissions from agroecosystems. He has published more than 30 peer-reviewed SCI papers in a number of international top journals including Science, Nature, Atmospheric Environment, Environmental Pollution and Agricultural Ecosystems & Environment. He firstly quantified atmospheric nitrogen dry deposition in the North China Plain and found that dry deposition can contribute to about 57 to 70% of the total nitrogen deposition. He also found that the ammonium particles (e.g. NH4NO3, (NH4)2SO4) accounted for 33-48% of the total mass of PM2.5 in the North China Plain, and proposed the importance of reducing ammonia emissions for improving the heavy aerosol pollution in Northern China. His current research interests are carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas mitigation from croplands, N deposition in catchment scale and surface-air exchange of ammonia in paddy fields.

ZHAO Jie --- Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences

His main interests have been in soil microbial communities (PLFAs), soil nematode communities, and soil micro-arthropod communities as ecological indicators for forest management. My current interests are the community compositions and structures of soil microbes (PLFAs) and soil nematodes of karst ecosystems, plant-soil interactions, karst ecosystem management and services.

LI Lujun --- National Field Station of Agroecosystem in Hailun, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, CAS

Lujun Li earned a Ph.D. in Ecology in Institute of Applied Ecology of CAS. He is currently a professor and lab leader of Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology (IGA), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), serving as the Deputy Executive Director of National Field Station of Agroecosystems in Hailun of CAS and the member of Youth Innovation Promotion Association of CAS. He has visited William R. Horwath Lab in UC Davis for one year. His research interests include soil fertility and soil carbon and nitrogen cycling, SOM mineralization and stabilization in Chinese black soils, especially in the presence of exogenous inputs. He is now serving as reviewers for more than 20 journals, like STILL, Catena, SBB, LDD.

CAI Peng --- College of Resources and Environment, Huazhong Agricultural University   

Peng Cai is a full Professor (Dec 2013 - present) in the College of Resources and Environment, Huazhong Agriclutural University (HZAU), China. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in Soil Biochemistry from HZAU in 2007. Since he joined HZAU in July 2007, his research has focused on 1) interaction mechanisms among soil minerals, organic matter and microorganisms, 2) soil biofilm formation, structure and functions, 3) remediation of soils contaminated by heavy metals, bacterial pathogens and antibiotic resistant genes. Dr. Cai has published more than 100 journal papers, most of which are in mainstream soil and environmental science journals including Environmental Science & Technology, Water Research, Soil Biology and Biochemistry, European Journals of Soil Science. Dr. Cai has also been actively collaborating with colleagues from different disciplines as evidenced by a number of papers published in multidisciplinary journals such as npj Biofilms and Microbiome, Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces. Dr. Cai teaches and/or coordinates courses on Soil Chemistry, Environmental Microbiology at both undergraduate and graduate levels.

WEI Xiaomeng --- Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Xiaomeng Wei, a first year ph.D student in Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences. She is focusing on the microbial role in P cycle in paddy soil, trying to improve the P use efficiency through microbial and agronomic means. She got the Bachelor Degree in China University of Mining & Technology (Beijing), and the Master Degree in Zhejiang University. She has published 3 first author papers in Biology and Fertility of Soils and Waste Management.

Zhenhua Zhang --- College of Resources and Environment ,Hunan Agricultural University

Zhenhua Zhang, currently is an associate Professor, Department of Plant nutrition, College of Resources and Environment, Hunan Agricultural University. His research interests focus on high nutrients use efficiency in rice-rape rotation system. His relevant work have been published in Plant Physiology, Plant and Soil, etc.

ZHU Zhenke--- Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Associate Professor, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences. His main interests have been in soil carbon and nutrient cycle, and the stability of soil organic matter. His current research interests are carbon mineralization and its element stoichiometric characteristics in paddy soil. His relevant work have been published in Soil Biology and Biochemistry, Plant and Soil, Biology and Fertility of Soils, etc.