Environmental Contaminants: Impacts and Responses in Plant and Soil Systems and Their Remediation Strategies

Dear Colleagues,

Human activities have significantly accelerated the buildup of contaminants in the terrestrial ecosystems. These contaminants, which include but are not limited to heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), agrochemicals, hydrocarbons, and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), form complexes in soil systems, posing multifaceted challenges to plants and other soil inhabitants. Interestingly, the accumulation of contaminants in the soil triggers plant responses with a far-reaching impact on animals and humans via the food chain. As a primary reservoir of environmental contaminants, most agricultural soils have witnessed alterations in their physicochemical properties, leading to changes in the soil microbial community, which plays a vital role in nutrient cycling. They also affect key enzymatic activities—dehydrogenase, urease, and phosphatase—which are major bioindicators of soil health.

The cumulating consequences of these for agriculturists include marginal loss due to poor yield and decreases in quality, resulting in limited acceptability in both local and international markets. With the surge in the global population, there is a constant push within the scientific community to ensure food sufficiency, even with the rising pressure on cultivable agricultural land due to human activities, industrialization, and urbanization. This topic is therefore of urgent importance in the face of these escalating circumstances. Elucidating the mechanistics underpinning plant and soil responses to contaminants will not only advance our understanding of ecological resilience, but also provide an informed decision and perspective on innovative and sustainable strategies for pollutant remediation via an understanding of activities in the plant–soil–microbial nexus. We invite manuscript submissions on topics related to but not limited to plant responses to environmental stress, plant biology and biochemistry, environmental contaminants and remediation, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), emerging contaminants, and phytotoxicity, among others.

Dr. Chuks Kenneth Odoh
Guest Editor

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