Call for papers—Kirkham Conference 2025: Fukushima and advancing soil physics

The Kirkham Conference provides an intensive and discussion-driven environment for advancing soil physics. The 2025 meeting in Fukushima, Japan highlighted the broad relevance of soil physical sciences to topics such as soil structure, hydrological processes across scales, contaminant transport, and environmental resilience and sustainability.

Vadose Zone Journal is inviting submissions to a special section will capture and extend the scientific discussions initiated at the conference, highlighting theoretical advances, methodological innovations, and applied research across diverse areas of soil physics. The journal invites a wide range of article contributions such as original research, novel methodologies, timely literature reviews, and insightful commentaries that are relevant to the Kirkham Conference and Fukushima. All participants of the conference will be invited to submit a manuscript to this special section. In addition, relevant submissions from the wider soil physics community will also be considered and welcome. The goal is to document emerging perspectives and support continued growth and collaboration in soil physics.

Topics for this call for papers include but are not restricted to:

• Cutting-Edge Technologies for Soil Management and Digitized Agriculture
• Soil Structure as a Nexus of Biogeochemical and Hydrological Processes
• Landscape-Scale Soil Hydrology: Bridging Scales and Systems
• Environmental Fate and Transport of Soil Contaminants

The deadline for submissions is Nov. 30, 2026. Learn more.