Shooting and Military Activities: A Holistic Approach from Source, Contamination and Remediation

Dear Colleagues,

The sites where military activities were performed in the past or present are widely spread in Eastern and Central Europe and the USA. Civilian shooting ranges, warfare areas, and military training camps are well-known land degradation hotspots along with territories of former airports, tank polygons, and parking lots. Those locations are often contaminated by trace elements (TEs), oil, and xenobiotics, and sometimes unknowns, which negatively affect soil and water resources, decrease biodiversity, and pose significant health risks. Civilian and military activities cause additional habitat fragmentation and biodiversity loss.

Several physical, chemical, and biological processes are traditionally applied to remediate former and active civilian and military sites. The most common have been soil washing, solidification/stabilization, chemical oxidation or reduction, excavation and off-site treatment or storage at a more appropriate site (‘dig and dump’), and incineration. These engineering approaches are extremely expensive; hence, alternative methods for in situ remediation of contaminated soils have been developed. These include phytoextraction (growing plants that accumulate high concentrations of an element in shoots for removal from the field) and phytostabilization (sequestration in roots, which may include adding soil amendments to convert soil elements in excess into forms with much lower phytoavailability and bioavailability so that they no longer pose a risk to the environment and human health). The combination of bioremediation and phytoremediation is proposed to revitalize post-military localities, particularly those contaminated by oil products or mixtures of organic and non-organic contaminants. A holistic approach has to be proposed for successful revitalization of the military areas, covering ecology, toxicology, chemistry, soil science, and environmental health, including animal health.

The current Special Issue will cover broad framework studies related to aquatic and terrestrial systems: i) contamination and risk assessment; ii) ecotoxicology; iii) impacts of military contamination on human health and biodiversity; and iv) mitigation measures applied to military sites  (phytoremediation, phytotechnology, bioremediation; nanomaterials, etc.).

Research focused on less-studied topics (e.g., chemical warfare agents, explosive military weapons, hydrocarbons, and oil contamination, etc.) is warmly welcomed. In addition, reviews and research papers, theoretical and practical contributions, and implemented case studies are welcome. All submissions will be subjected to a peer-review process before publication.

Dr. Andres Rodriguez-Seijo
Dr. Peter Sanderson
Prof. Dr. Valentina V. Pidlisnyuk
Guest Editors

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