Abstract

Soil fertility is generally defined as the ability of soils to yield crops and is therefore closely intertwined with plant nutrient cycles. The soil sulfur cycle is driven by biological and physico-chemical processes, which affect flora and fauna. The organic matter pool is an important source and sink for sulfur though its contribution to the mineral nutrition of high yielding crops has been overestimated in the past. For a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between sulfur and soil fertility it is necessary to identify the main factors and processes controlling the plant available sulfur pool and to appraise the ecotoxicological significance of sulfur within the content of a limiting factor rather than a pollutant.