Effect of Drought Stress on Nutrient Management in Crop Plant Production—2nd Edition

Dear Colleagues,

Abiotic stresses are significant constraints on crop production and food security worldwide. The situation has been aggravated due to the drastic and rapid changes in the global climate. Nutrient management in drought conditions is undoubtedly the most crucial factor, having a substantial impact on the growth and productivity of crops. In the wake of climate change, drought and heat stresses have become the most critical limiting factors for crop productivity and food security. Therefore, understanding the physiological and ecological crop plant reactions and responses related to these stresses is important for better crop production management.

This Special Issue of Crops aims to collect current knowledge on the transformation and digestibility of nutrients contained in the soil and brought in with organic and mineral fertilizers in drought conditions. Plant nutrients in the soil, occurring naturally and supplied with mineral and organic fertilization for effective plant production, undergo significantly reduced solubility and availability for growth in drought conditions. As a result of drought, many unfavorable processes occur in the soil, which may lead to its salinity and, consequently, osmotic stress, which causes crop yield limitations. Under such conditions, the availability of nutrients is limited, which reduces the yields obtained while also worsening their quality. Therefore, understanding the mechanisms influencing the absorption of nutrients and their availability for plants is crucial to ensuring the continuity of agricultural production and food security, which is extremely important in the era of advancing climate change. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Plant reactions to drought stress and low nutrient availability;
• Crop nutrient cycling under drought conditions;
• Problems of soil nutrient availability for crop production under drought stress;
• Problems of crop plant fertilization under drought stress;
• The efficiency of nutrient transfer from fertilizers under drought conditions;
• Effect of soil drought on plant root systems and nutrient availability;
• Effect of natural and mineral fertilizers on soil fertility and crop production under drought stress.

Dr. Małgorzata Szostek
Guest Editor

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. Crops 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 1200 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.