Plants’ ability to take up silicon from the soil, accumulate it within their tissues and then reincorporate it into the soil through litter creates an intricate network of feedback mechanisms in ecosystems. Here, we provide a concise review of silicon’s roles in soil chemistry and physics and in plant physiology and ecology, focusing on the processes that form these feedback mechanisms. Through this review and analysis, we demonstrate how this feedback network drives ecosystem processes and affects ecosystem functioning. Consequently, we show that Si uptake and accumulation by plants is involved in several ecosystem services like soil appropriation, biomass supply, and carbon sequestration. Considering the demand for food of an increasing global population and the challenges of climate change, a detailed understanding of the underlying processes of these ecosystem services is of prime importance. Silicon and its role in ecosystem functioning and services thus should be the main focus of future research.

The extractable silicon (Si) using selected extractants irrespective of the soils used for the study was in the order of 0.005 M sulfuric acid (H₂SO₄) > 0.1 M citric acid > N sodium acetate (NaOAc) 2 > N NaOAc 1 > 0.5 M acetic acid 3 > 0.5 M acetic acid 2 > 0.5 M acetic acid 1> 0.01 M calcium chloride (CaCl₂) > 0.5 M ammonium acetate (NH4OAc) > distilled water 4 > distilled water 1. Silicon extraction with N NaOAc 1 appeared to be the most suitable for evaluating Si, followed by extraction with 0.5 M acetic acid 2 and N NaOAc 2. These extractants showed the greatest degree of significant correlation with the percentage of Si in straw and grain, as well as Si uptake by straw and grain. These methods also rapidly extract soil Si in comparison to the other methods and appear to be the most suitable for routine soil testing for plant-available Si in the rice soils of southern India.

The foliar nutrition of silicic acid is considered to be a novel approach in enhancing the performance of many crops worldwide. The present study aimed to assess if the foliar application of silicon (Si) could influence the performance of soybean varieties with distinct crop duration, MAUS-2 (long duration) and KBS-23 (short duration). Field experiments were conducted in two consecutive years (2016 and 2017) of varied rainfall with foliar application of silicic acid @ 2 and 4 mL L⁻¹ for three and two sprays each. The results showed significant enhancement in the yield, seed quality (protein and oil content), and uptake of nutrients (N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, and Si) by various parts viz., seed, husk, and haulm of both varieties with foliar nutrition of silicic acid. However, the short duration variety, KBS-23, responded well under low rainfall conditions (2016) with two sprays of foliar silicic acid @ 4 mL L⁻¹ and MAUS-2 variety in the second season under higher rainfall (2017) with three sprays of foliar silicic acid @ 2 mL L⁻¹, along with the recommended dose of fertilizer. This research revealed that the effectiveness of foliar silicic acid nutrition differs with the duration of the varieties, number of sprays given, and water availability in the soil during the cropping period.

Phytoliths are composed of 66 to 91% SiO₂ and 1 to 6% organic carbon (C) known as phytolith occluded carbon (PhytOC). PhytOC is critical for long-term C storage in the agroecosystem. A field experiment was carried out to investigate the effect of three different sources of exogenous Si, i.e., diatomaceous earth (DE), silicic acid (SA) and rice husk biochar (RHB) on 1) plant phytolith, C content in phytolith and PhytOC content in different rice organs; 2) relationship between plant phytolith, C content in phytolith, PhytOC content, and soil properties (soil physicochemical properties and readily soluble silicon pools). Different Si sources produced significantly higher phytolith, PhytOC content, and readily soluble Si pools (CCSi, AASi, and ASi) than the control (RDF), with treatment receiving 4 t RHB ha^-1 outperforming the other treatments. Phytolith and PhytOC production were found to be significantly correlated to soil organic carbon (OC), available nitrogen (N) and potassium (K), 0.01 M CaCl₂ extractable Si (CCSi) and amorphous Si (ASi) content in the soil. Redundancy analysis showed that treatments receiving 4 t RHB ha^-1 have a stronger relationship with the CCSi and ASi which majorly contributed to the higher phytolith and PhytOC production. Thus, practices such as Si fertilizers and RHB application have a high potential for phytolith production and PhytOC sequestration, a critical mechanism of the global biogeochemical C sink.