## 1 _Editorial_ Sustainable Agriculture and Soil Conservation II_
Nest volume was estimated, and the nest inner structure was investigated in order to assess the potential implications of these formations on the soil hydrological properties. The results revealed that ant activity plays a key role in the reestablishment of ecological and hydrological soil processes. The paper presented by [PERSON] et al. [7] evaluated the effect of the soil management system (conventional vs. organic) on copper (Cu) bioavailability and mobility in vineyard soils under climate change-induced stresses. The aim was to verify whether the organic management was more resilient to temperature and moisture stresses in comparison with conventional management. Namely, several soil chemical properties, including Cu speciation, bioavailability, and leaching, were monitored on an acid and on a calcareous vineyard soil, conventionally or organically managed, after 6 months of exposure to temperature or moisture stress, or to the combination of both stresses. The temperature stress reduced the amount of organic carbon, and dissolved both organic carbon and available ammonium, while it increased the levels of nitrate. Conversely, the moisture stress tended to mitigate some of these changes. Despite these findings, the results revealed no significant influence of the soil management system (conventional vs. organic) on the Cu mobility and bioavailability under climate change conditions. [PERSON] et al. [8] monitored CO\({}_{2}\)-C emissions in a long-term field experiment with _Secale cereale_ L. comparing two different fertilization strategies: (i) mineral fertilization with N, P, K, and Ca; and (ii) fertilization with cattle manure and Ca. The authors hypothesized that sandy soils have a low C storage potential; thus, organic C added into the soil may increase CO\({}_{2}\)-C emissions into the atmosphere. Results revealed that fertilization with ma nure doubled the soil organic C content but reduced the grain yield by approximately 20%, compared to the mineral fertilized treatment. Obviously, CO\({}_{2}\)-C emissions in the manure fertilized soil were higher than in the mineral fertilized soil, but the overall C balance was positive; indeed C stored in the soil doubled in only two years of experimentation. The study revealed the importance of monitoring CO\({}_{2}\)-C emissions during soil manuring and considering the possibility of alternating organic and mineral fertilization to avoid plant yield reductions. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [9] performed a metagenomic study to evaluate the fungal diversity during the thermophilic and mesophilic phases of sewage sludge composting. Understanding the interactions between microorganisms during composting and the composition of microbial populations can be of great importance to improve the biotransformation process and, consequently, to obtain compost of better quality. This is necessary, especially when sewage sludge is used as starting material, due to the low-quality characteristics of this matrix. To uncover the fungal diversity, a metagenomic approach and next-generation Illumina HiSeq2000 were adopted. Results revealed that a higher microbial activity characterized the thermophilic phase, whereas a higher fungal diversity characterized the mesophilic phase. At the genus level, _Psathyrella_, _Chaetomidium_, _Mortierella_, and _Cheilymenia_ represented 85% of the mesophilic fungi, while _Mortierella_ and _Thielavia_ represented 78% of the thermophilic fungi, respectively. The scientific papers presented in this SI contribute to improve the basic and applied knowledge in the field of sustainable agriculture and soil conservation, also highlighting the interconnections between soil conservation practices and climate change. Several of these contributions also provide innovative methodologies that can be easily transferred to real-life contexts and are useful for the investigation of complex sites interested by different soil management systems, soil pollution, or deep erosion processes. This research received no external funding. The authors declare no conflict of interest.