Background, Objectives and Scope
Soil is alive, and soils would not exist without the activity and diversity of soil residential microorganisms. Numerous studies have convincingly demonstrated that soil microorganisms are essential for maintaining key soil processes associated with organic matter decomposition, nutrient cycling, and plant productivity, and thus are integral to human well-being. Recent technological advances have exponentially increased our knowledge concerning soil microbial composition, diversity, distribution, and their ecological functions. Therefore, this special issue will invite contributions that represent various aspects of science and technology and recent innovations in the field of soil microbial ecology. 

The main topics include but not limited to:
 ● Soil microbial spatiotemporal distribution
 ● Soil microbial response to environmental changes
 ● Soil microorganisms and biogeochemical cycles
 ● Interactions between plant and soil microbes
 ● Soil pathology related to human well-being
 
About the Journal and Submission Procedure
Soil Ecology Letters (SEL) is an authoritative source of information for professionals in the broad field of soil ecology, jointly published by Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Higher Education Press of China and Springer. More information on the journal is available at http://www.springer.com/journal/42832 and http://journal.hep.com.cn/sel.  

All submissions have to be prepared according to the Guide for Authors as published in the Journal website at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/selett. Authors should clearly indicate their manuscript is intended for the special issue Soil Microbial Ecology when submitting their manuscript online. All contributions must not have been previously published or be under consideration for publication elsewhere. 

Important Dates:
Paper submissions start: April 3, 2020
Paper submissions due: September 30, 2020.
Expected Issue date: March 1, 2021

Guest Editors of the Special Issue:
Prof. Haiyan Chu 
Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Science, China
hychu@issas.ac.cn

Prof. Yunfeng Yang 
Tsinghua University, China 
yangyf@tsinghua.edu.cn