Urban Forests, Parks, and Plants as Biomonitoring Pools for Air Pollution
A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 137
Special Issue Editors
Interests: urban forests
Interests: treeline ecotone; dendrochronology; wood anatomy; biodiversity & conservation; climate change
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Air pollution and climate change are closely linked issues that pose significant global threats related to population growth, energy and emerging material demand, and waste generation. Although there have been advancements in clean technologies, the Global Air 2024 Report estimates that air pollution is responsible for more than 8.1 million deaths worldwide. Urban green ecosystems offer considerable advantages for cities and residents, particularly in mitigating climate change and industrialization. Studying forests, parks, and plants as biomonitoring pools is of great interest in understanding the pollution threat induced by a wide range of substances that contaminate urban settlements. Plants are recommended for biomonitoring because of their efficiency, low cost as long-term proxies of environmental information regarding air and soil quality, and their sampling advantages. For instance, tree rings can serve as pollution history archives, which can offer dendrochemical proxy data for assessing and modeling contaminant distribution over decades. Our interest is not limited to evaluating a variety of toxic and potentially toxic pollutants, including nanomaterials and substances considered emerging pollutants (e.g., toxic metals, metalloids, rare earth elements, nanomaterials, microplastics, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), halogenated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (HPAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), pharmaceuticals, surfactants, pesticides, and others); source origins (industrial, municipal, commercial operators, waste incineration and deposits, and vehicular traffic); their dispersion and transformation; and their interaction. We are also concerned with reconstructing, forecasting, and improving the management of vulnerable species.
Many pollutants often go unchecked and are not regulated, highlighting the importance of conducting thorough and detailed assessment reports. The objective of this Special Issue is to contribute new perspectives to the research and to advance those challenges embedded in original research and review articles related to the following: (i) appropriate methodological issues; (ii) including machine learning in predicting dispersion or time evolution; (iii) evaluating the degree of contamination and health risk; (iv) biomonitoring of genotoxic effects; (v) phytoremediation; (vi) anatomical and chemical plant characteristics; (vii) ecophysiological responses of trees species caused by air pollution; and (viii) urban air pollutant bioassay. Studies with multidisciplinary approaches, articles based on fundamental aspects, and those focusing on experimental investigations will be considered for this Special issue. Studies regarding mineral deficiency and toxicity, the relationship between nutrients and toxic metal concentrations, and imbalanced mole ratios will also be considered.
We look forward to you submissions.
Dr. Constantin Nechita
Dr. Jesús Julio Camarero
Dr. Andreea Maria Iordache
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
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
- biomonitoring
- urban pollution
- emerging pollutants
- risk assessment
- air pollutant bioassay
- tree rings
- dendroecology
- absorption
- toxicity
- bioavailability
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.