Soil Biostimulants: Advanced Insights into Benefits, Limitations and Mechanisms of Action
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Soil Conservation and Sustainability".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2026 | Viewed by 18
Special Issue Editors
Interests: soils; sediment; agricultural engineering
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The agricultural revolution of the last century, which supported the worldwide unprecedented growth of the global population, was made possible by availability of chemical fertilizers at relatively low prices. This development model has nowadays shown its limits in terms of yields expansion and is causing severe environmental impacts.
New sustainable, low input but technologically advanced practices are required to support farmers’ revenues and counteract the negative effects of climatic changes on global food security.
Use of soil biostimulants has emerged as a potentially winning strategy by fostering plant productivity, fertilizer efficiency and, in particular, resilience to abiotic stresses; however, results lack robustness, showing large variability.
This Issue focuses on the action principles, benefits for crops and limits of biostimulants applied to soil.
In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Mechanisms of action
- Effects on soil biochemical properties and microbial communities
- Evaluation of soil and crop response to applications
- Uses in soil remediation and reclamation
- Effects on crop residues mineralization
- Novel formulations
- Management issues such as application rates, frequency of application, coupling with mineral and organo-mineral fertilizers, etc.
Dr. Marco Contin
Prof. Dr. Maria De Nobili
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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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. Sustainability 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 2400 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
- biostimulants
- mechanisms of action
- abiotic stresses
- soil health
- stress tolerance
- soil microbiology
- nutrients uptake
- fertilizers’ efficiency
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