Advances in Phytoremediation Strategies to Address Global Environmental Challenges
A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Ecology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2025 | Viewed by 1537
Special Issue Editors
Interests: phytoremediation; bioremediation; heavy metals; environmental pollution; restoration; assisted phytoremediation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: microbes; extreme environments; pollution; plant growth; soil fertility; environmental challenges
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The Green and Industrial Revolutions marked transformative milestones in agriculture and industrialization, significantly enhancing food production and advancing mechanization and economies worldwide. Nevertheless, although these revolutions established the groundwork for modern agricultural and economic development, they concurrently engendered profound environmental challenges, such as the pollution of soil with various organic and inorganic contaminants. In the present decade, these challenges have escalated to a critical threshold, posing an alarming threat to ecosystems, biodiversity, and human well-being. Addressing these interconnected challenges demands immediate collaborative action to protect all species and ensure planetary sustainability.
Among the strategies employed to remediate polluted environments, phytoremediation, first conceptualized in 1991, has emerged as a promising sustainable approach. This nature-based solution leverages plants' innate ability to degrade, accumulate, and stabilize contaminants. Despite its potential, its efficacy can be limited in environments with high levels of contamination, where plant growth is inhibited.
To address these limitations, new approaches could be used to increase the performance of this technique. The application of soil amendments, aligned with the principles of the circular bioeconomy, could be a vital approach to not only reduce the bioavailability of contaminants, but also enhance soil quality and promote plant growth and development. Additionally, the use of plant growth-promoting microbes (PGPM) provides a synergistic advantage by improving plant resilience under abiotic stress, enhancing biomass production, and facilitating the accumulation or degradation of contaminants.
Given the urgent significance of environmental pollution within the broader framework of global challenges, this Special Issue of Plants focuses on the recent advances in phytoremediation strategies.
Dr. Anas Raklami
Dr. Ahmed Nafis
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
- pollution contamination
- environment remediation
- restoration xenobiotics
- plants accumulation
- amendments microbes
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.
- Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.
