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Agronomy
Special Issues
Impact of Phytoremediation on Soil Ecosystems
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Impact of Phytoremediation on Soil Ecosystems

A Special Issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395) belonging to the section "Farming Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2026) | Viewed by 1610

Editors

Dr. Dionisios Gasparatos

E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor
Laboratory of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Agricultural University of Athens, 11855 Athens, Greece
Interests: soil science; plant nutrition; land degradation; soil processes; integrated soil nutrient management; biochar; organic farming; sustainable agriculture
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Petroula Seridou

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Crete, 73100 Chania, Greece
Interests: phytoremediation and bioremediation; plant–microbe interactions; environmental biotechnology; nanobubble technology; treatment and valorization of agricultural waste

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Phytoremediation is a biological process that has been widely used for many years because it represents a low-cost, highly efficient, and environmentally friendly technology for soil restoration. Owing to the natural ability of plants to extract, stabilize, transform, or volatilize contaminants, soils can be decontaminated through several mechanisms. This ecotechnology has evolved from a simple plant-based cleanup method to complex bioremediation systems integrating plant–microbe interactions. This Special Issue aims to explore how phytoremediation affects the structure and functions of soil ecosystems. Our main objective is to highlight how plants and their associated microbiomes contribute to pollutant removal (e.g., heavy metals, emerging contaminants, hydrocarbons, etc.), nutrient cycling, and the recovery of restored soils. Recently, omic tools, nanotechnology, tailored plant–microbe consortia, advanced irrigation techniques, and other soil amendments have been incorporated to enhance the efficiency of phytoremediation. We invite original research papers and reviews addressing, but not limiting to, phytoremediation of various pollutants, the responses of soil microbiome, and the assessment of soil quality parameters following remediation under laboratory-, mesocosm-, and pilot-scale conditions.

Dr. Dionisios Gasparatos
Dr. Petroula Seridou
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-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agronomy 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

  • phytoremediation
  • microbiome dynamics
  • ecosystem recovery
  • heavy metals
  • emerging contaminants

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

24 pages, 14605 KB  
Article
Responses of Sorghum Growth and Rhizosphere–Plastisphere Microbiomes to Cadmium and Polypropylene Microplastic Co-Contamination
by Zong-Hua Wang, Shan-Shan Gao, Lei Yang, Yue-Liang Meng, Meng Wang, Bai-Lian Larry Li and Zhao-Jin Chen
Agronomy 2026, 16(3), 293; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy16030293 - 24 Jan 2026
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1022
Abstract
Microplastics (MPs) can serve as bearers of microorganisms and additional contaminants. However, the functional composition and assembly processes of plastisphere bacteria in co-contaminated soil–plant systems are not yet well understood. Using a pot experiment, we examined the effects of both individual and combined [...] Read more.
Microplastics (MPs) can serve as bearers of microorganisms and additional contaminants. However, the functional composition and assembly processes of plastisphere bacteria in co-contaminated soil–plant systems are not yet well understood. Using a pot experiment, we examined the effects of both individual and combined cadmium (Cd) and polypropylene (PP) MP contamination on the development of the bioenergy plant sorghum. The bacterial community, co-occurrence networks, and assembly processes in the rhizosphere soil and PP plastisphere were investigated using high-throughput sequencing. Compared with contamination by a single compound, combined contamination with Cd and PP had a more potent inhibitory effect on the development of sorghum. PCoA and diversity indices indicate that the bacterial community on PP plastics is structurally simpler than that in rhizosphere soil. The PP plastisphere could recruit bacteria from the genera Sphingomonas, Rhizobium, and Bacillus. The bacterial communities in the soil and the PP plastisphere were mostly formed by stochastic processes, with diffusion limitation playing a greater role in the bacterial community in the PP plastisphere. Co-occurrence network analysis revealed differences between the bacterial communities in the soil and in the PP plastisphere, with the network in the PP plastisphere showing lower complexity and connectivity. Functional prediction revealed that the prevalence of nitrogen cycling genes was greater in the PP plastisphere than in the dirt and that the PP plastisphere presented greater metabolic activity. The relative prevalence of metabolic pathways associated with human diseases was markedly elevated in the PP plastisphere, which may be correlated with the dissemination of pathogenic microorganisms. These findings indicate that the PP plastisphere, as a distinct microbial niche, might attract certain bacteria, consequently affecting the functional characteristics of cocontaminated soil–plant systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impact of Phytoremediation on Soil Ecosystems)
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