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Water
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Evaluation of Water Quality and Soil Health in Agroecosystems
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Evaluation of Water Quality and Soil Health in Agroecosystems

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Soil and Water".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 April 2024) | Viewed by 2223

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Patrícia Palma

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Earth Sciences (ICT-Evora)/Polytechnic Institute of Beja, 7800-295 Beja, Portugal
Interests: environmental risk assessment; water quality; ecotoxicology bioassays; pesticides
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Alexandra Tomaz

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
GeoBioTec, NOVA School of Science and Technology/Polytechnic Institute of Beja, 7800-295 Beja, Portugal
Interests: soil and water conservation; water use efficiency; soil salinity; irrigation water quality; irrigation management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The evaluation of water quality and soil health in agroecosystems is a critical aspect of sustainable agriculture, environmental protection, and public health. Research in this area can contribute to improving agricultural practices, increasing food security, and improving the quality and preservation of ecosystem services.

Water contaminated with high levels of ions, potentially toxic metals, pesticides, or other dangerous substances can harm plants, reducing crop yields; with a decrease in soil quality and health, this compromises its structure, fertility, and the balance of the agroecosystem. This Special Issue explores the multifaceted dynamics between water quality, management practices, and soil health in agricultural systems and aims to cover a wide range of research topics, including (i) soil and water quality assessment; (ii) the influence of water quality on the balance of agroecosystems; (iii) environmental impacts of agriculture on water (surface water and groundwater) and soils, and their consequences for ecosystem services and human health; (iv) soil and water management strategies and agronomic techniques to mitigate the negative effects of water quality on soil fertility and health; (v) policies and regulations to ensure responsible water use in agriculture, safeguarding both crop productivity and environmental sustainability.

Prof. Dr. Patrícia Palma
Dr. Alexandra Tomaz
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • water quality
  • soil health
  • agroecosystem
  • ecosystem services
  • soil and water management strategies

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 2171 KiB  
Article
Non-Lethal Assessment of Land Use Change Effects in Water and Soil of Algerian Riparian Areas along the Medjerda River through the Biosentinel Bufo spinosus Daudin
by Pasquale Napoletano, Noureddine Guezgouz, Imen Benradia, Sarra Benredjem, Costantino Parisi, Giulia Guerriero and Anna De Marco
Water 2024, 16(4), 538; https://doi.org/10.3390/w16040538 - 9 Feb 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 935
Abstract
The land use change can negatively impact ecosystems, enriching water and soil with heavy metals (HMs). The fragile riparian areas along the Medjerda River of Northern Algeria are particularly affected by this phenomenon, and biological tools able to combine information about both matrices [...] Read more.
The land use change can negatively impact ecosystems, enriching water and soil with heavy metals (HMs). The fragile riparian areas along the Medjerda River of Northern Algeria are particularly affected by this phenomenon, and biological tools able to combine information about both matrices can be preferred in their monitoring. This research aimed to evaluate the suitability of the spiny toad (Bufo spinosus D.) as a biomonitor for assessing the impact of three different land uses (agricultural (AGR), urban (URB), and industrial (IND) managements) on soil and water for Cu, Fe, Pb, and Zn by using the non-lethal skin biopsy. The IND land use, followed by URB, mostly impacted soils for Cu and Pb, whereas management was not able to influence water differently despite worrying Pb levels. The cluster analysis allows to show that toad responds like soil in terms of land use and like water for HMs, as it is possibly related to the metal–chemical affinity. Although the single skin analyses do not display any difference among the managements, the bioaccumulation factor (BF > 1) shows that B. spinosus absorbs more HMs from water; skin accumulates Fe and Zn regardless of the land use, probably for both natural and anthropogenic assimilation and Pb and Cu for URB and IND, as it is related to their ionic forms and human impact. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Evaluation of Water Quality and Soil Health in Agroecosystems)
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18 pages, 4390 KiB  
Article
Water Quality Assessment of a Hydro-Agricultural Reservoir in a Mediterranean Region (Case Study—Lage Reservoir in Southern Portugal)
by Adriana Catarino, Inês Martins, Clarisse Mourinha, João Santos, Alexandra Tomaz, Pedro Anastácio and Patrícia Palma
Water 2024, 16(4), 514; https://doi.org/10.3390/w16040514 - 6 Feb 2024
Viewed by 921
Abstract
In regions where drought has become a common occurrence for most of the year and where agriculture is the main economic activity, the development of hydro-agricultural systems has made it possible to improve water management. Despite this, the intensification of agriculture combined with [...] Read more.
In regions where drought has become a common occurrence for most of the year and where agriculture is the main economic activity, the development of hydro-agricultural systems has made it possible to improve water management. Despite this, the intensification of agriculture combined with climate change leads to a potential decrease in water quality and water management practices are essential to improve agro-environmental sustainability. The aim of this study was to assess the water quality for irrigation and potential ecological status of the reservoir (using support chemical parameters). The results showed biological oxygen demand values above the maximum stipulated for an excellent ecological potential in all sampling periods except April 2018 and December 2020 (with the highest values of 10 mg L−1 O2 in dry periods). Most of the total nitrogen concentrations (TN) surpassed those stipulated for a good ecological potential (0.96 ≤ TN ≤ 2.44 mg L−1 N). In fact, TN and total suspended solids were the main parameters used for water classification. From the perspective of irrigation and according to FAO guidelines regarding infiltration rate, these waters presented light to moderate levels of restrictions. Thus, the results revealed that the decrease in the water quality status and its possible impact on the soil infiltration rate can be related, in part, to the meteorological conditions and to the intensive agricultural practices developed around the drainage basin. Despite that, as the Lage reservoir is part of Brinches–Enxoé hydraulic circuit, the water recirculation is also an important factor that may have affected the results obtained. Furthermore, the experimental design, integrating ecological status, irrigation parameters, and the impact on soil systems; using the same parameters from different perspectives; allowed us to have a global idea of water contamination and its impact on agroecosystems, improving river basin management processes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Evaluation of Water Quality and Soil Health in Agroecosystems)
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