Soil Health and Plant Microbiome–Bioeffectors Relationship in Sustainable Agriculture, 2nd Edition

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainable agriculture strives to meet the nutritional needs of the human population, combining this aspiration with the recovery and maintenance of soil fertility, natural resources, and environmental protection. Microbial communities are essential in managing plant and soil health to obtain increased crop yields with good quality. Microorganisms distributed in the rhizosphere, in plant tissues or on their surface, are prominently "selected" by the plants themselves through the habitat’s characteristics. The progress in agricultural practices and circular bioeconomy achieved in recent years, such as no-till, intermediate, and cover crops, green manure, soil organic amendments, crop rotations, and so on, also model the highly diverse microbial communities. Undoubtedly, the role of these communities is crucial, and in some cases decisive, for plant and soil health, crop resistance, and the mitigation of abiotic and biotic stressors, and thus also for the quantity and quality of crop production. In this regard, the focus of the present Special Issue of Microorganisms is the plant-associated microbiome as an essential piece of the puzzle named sustainable agriculture. The scope is broad and unrestrictive, referring to rhizosphere microbial communities, endophytes, etc. We aim to bring together and showcase original, novel studies and reviews on the plant-associated microbiome in sustainable agriculture. Studies on the beneficial microorganisms in sustainable agriculture are more than welcome.

Prof. Dr. Nikolay Vassilev
Prof. Dr. Stefan Shilev
Guest Editors

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