Microbial Ecology and Biogeochemical Functions in Sediment and Aquatic Environments
A special issue of Microorganisms (ISSN 2076-2607). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Microbiology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2026 | Viewed by 452
Editors
2. Geosyntec Consultants, Atlanta, GA, USA
Interests: mercury; methylmercury; genomic; anammox; biogeochemistry; trace metal; heavy metal pollution; metagenomics; Meta-Omics; wastewater treatment; microbial ecology; sediments
Interests: plastisphere; pharmaceuticals and personal care products; water environment protection; antibiotic resistance genes; micro/nanoplastics; microbial ecology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: microbial bioenergy; microbial waste valorization; microbial environmental engineering; microbial oilfield sustainability; resource recovery; AI for microbial energy & environment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Bacterial communities in sediment and aquatic environments—including freshwater, marine, and estuarine systems—play central roles in microbial ecology and biogeochemical cycling. Diverse bacterial groups contribute to the degradation of organic matter, nutrient and carbon cycling, greenhouse gas production, and the transformation of contaminants, including both trace metals and organic pollutants.
Microbial processes are closely linked to the cycling and fate of trace metals such as iron (Fe), arsenic (As), and mercury (Hg), as well as organic pollutants such as hydrocarbons, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and other emerging contaminants. Through redox reactions, methylation, immobilization, mobilization, and biodegradation, bacterial communities can influence contaminants’ mobility, toxicity, persistence, and bioavailability. In turn, trace metals, organic pollutants, and other environmental stressors can shape microbial communities’ structure, diversity, ecological interactions, and functional potential in sediments and water columns.
This Special Issue highlights the advances in microbial ecology and biogeochemical functions in relation to sediment and aquatic environments, paying special attention to microbial responses to trace metal and organic pollution, contaminant transformation, and interactions among microbial communities, pollutants, and environmental gradients. We welcome original research and review articles using field observations, laboratory experiments, molecular approaches, omics technologies, isotopic tracing, bioinformatics, or ecosystem modeling.
Dr. Yongli Wang
Dr. Sheng Liu
Dr. Guandong Su
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. Microorganisms is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2700 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
- microbial ecology
- bacterial communities
- organic pollutant transformation
- sediment environments
- aquatic environments
- trace metals
- biogeochemistry
- community dynamics
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