Urban landscapes are complex incubators for emerging public health threats, including the persistence and spread of zoonotic pathogens that jeopardize the integrated health of humans, animals, plants, and environments—a nexus addressed by the One Health framework. Within these ecosystems, soil biodiversity is a keystone component that underpins critical ecosystem functions, yet it persists as one of the least understood elements of urban ecosystems.

 

Aligned with the World Soil Day 2025 theme, "Healthy soils for healthy cities," this special issue calls for research to address this knowledge gap.  We seek submissions that illuminate the distribution patterns and functional contributions of urban soil biota, particularly under pressures from human activity and climate change. We are also interested in studies exploring how harnessing urban soil biodiversity can lead to nature-based solutions for mitigating biodiversity loss, adapting to climate change, and reducing the urban burden of disease. We particularly encourage studies proposing frameworks for embedding soil biodiversity into urban governance and policy to directly enhance One Health outcomes.

 

Guest editors:

Prof. Dr. Xin Sun

Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Email: xsun@iue.ac.cn

 

Prof. Dr. Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo

Instituto de Recursos Naturales y Agrobiología de Sevilla (IRNAS), CSIC

Email: M.delgado.baquerizo@csic.es

 

Prof. Dr. Martin F. Breed

College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Bedford Park, South Australia, Australia

Email: martin.breed@flinders.edu.au

 

Prof. Dr. Alexei V. Tiunov

A. N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

Email: a_tiunov@mail.ru

 

Prof. Dr. Yong-Guan Zhu

Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Email: ygzhu@iue.ac.cn

 

Manuscript submission information:

Submission open date: 15 September 2025

Submission deadline: 31 May 2026