Interactions Between Crops and Resource Utilization
A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Nutrition".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2026 | Viewed by 318
Special Issue Editors
Interests: maize-soybean intercropping; molecular biology; stress physiology
Interests: intercropping; cereals; legumes; sustainable agriculture; agroforestry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Global agricultural systems face the imperative to enhance productivity while conserving finite natural resources. While modern monocropping has increased crop yields, it often leads to soil degradation and inefficient nutrient and water use, highlighting a critical need to optimize resource utilization across all farming systems. Understanding the fundamental interactions between crops and their resources, including light, water, nutrients, and soil biota, is essential for this optimization. These interactions, governed by plant physiology and system management, ultimately determine the efficiency, resilience, and sustainability of agricultural production.
This Special Issue explores the physiological, ecological, and economic mechanisms that govern these crop–resource interactions. We investigate how factors such as planting configurations, root architecture, and soil microbial communities influence resource-use efficiency and system resilience. Furthermore, we seek to understand how these biophysical processes translate into economic outcomes, evaluating the profitability and viability of different management strategies.
We invite original research and reviews that advance the science of crop–resource dynamics. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following: root architecture and nutrient foraging, water dynamics, plant–soil–microbe feedbacks, modeling approaches to resource allocation, the economic effects of different cropping systems and management practices, and the impact of planting design and spatial arrangement on system performance.
Submissions integrating field experimentation with molecular, mechanistic, or socio-economic insights are highly encouraged.
Dr. Lingyang Feng
Dr. Muhammad Ali Raza
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. Plants 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 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
- crop–resource interactions
- resource-use efficiency
- sustainable intensification
- system resilience
- economic viability
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