Contaminant Behavior and Remediation Strategies in Agricultural Soils
A special issue of Agriculture (ISSN 2077-0472). This special issue belongs to the section "Agricultural Soils".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 August 2026 | Viewed by 265
Special Issue Editors
Interests: environmental science and engineering; contaminant fate and transport; soil remediation; water and wastewater treatment; environmental biotechnology; resource recovery
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: plant biochemistry; molecular biology; microbiology; plant genetics; plant detoxification; environmental remediation; plant-microbe interactions
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Agricultural soils are increasingly recognized as sinks for a wide range of contaminants originating from modern agricultural practices, waste reuse, urban influence, and industrial activities. Beyond conventional pollutants, new classes of chemical and biological stressors are raising concerns regarding soil health, crop productivity, food safety, and ecosystem sustainability. These contaminants often exhibit complex behavior, including persistence, mobility, bioavailability, and interactions with soil components and biota. At the same time, innovative remediation and risk-mitigation strategies are being developed to reduce their environmental and human health impacts. This Special Issue aims to advance understanding of the sources, fate, effects, and control of contaminants in agroecosystems.
Areas of interest for publication include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Impacts of emerging contaminants (e.g., PFAS, microplastics, pharmaceuticals) on soil health, including microbial communities, soil fauna, and nutrient cycling;
- Soil–contaminant interactions controlling bioavailability, mobility, and long-term persistence;
- Effects of contaminants on soil structure, carbon dynamics, and ecosystem resilience;
- Development and evaluation of soil amendments (e.g., biochar, minerals, organic materials, industrial residuals) for contaminant immobilization and soil restoration;
- Innovative in situ remediation and stabilization technologies for contaminated agricultural soils;
- Monitoring approaches, indicators, and frameworks for assessing soil health recovery following remediation.
Dr. Zhiming Zhang
Prof. Dr. Rupali Datta
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
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. Agriculture 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
- agricultural soils
- contaminant behavior
- remediation strategies
- emerging contaminants
- soil health
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