Soil, as one of the main compartments of the terrestrial environment, is concentrated in a small part of the earth where plants and microorganisms play a major role in biogeochemical processes. The plant-soil interface, known as the rhizosphere, is a dynamic system where roots release organic substrates, forming rhizosphere gradients, contributing to biogeochemical processes, and modulating microbial habitats by crossing and penetrating aggregates, biopores, and detritus. Roots and associated microorganisms interact with heterogeneous soil environments that provide habitats for biota on various scales.
The challenging task, therefore, is to link the physical, chemical, and biological processes occurring at different scales (from nanometers to centimeters) at soil interfaces and to upscale these processes to the scale of the root system and the soil profile. This requires concerted efforts to combine methods from different disciplines such as plant genomics, imaging, soil physics, chemistry, and microbiology.
We welcome experimental and modeling studies that aim to reveal the functional biodiversity of microorganisms at soil interfaces, the uptake and release patterns by roots, soil structure modification by root growth (and vice versa), as well as the feedbacks between these processes. We also call for studies on emerging properties at soil interfaces, such as water acquisition, nutrient cycling, plant health, soil structure development, and the interactions among these processes.