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Sustainability
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Sustainable Risk Assessment and Remediation of Soil Pollution
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Sustainable Risk Assessment and Remediation of Soil Pollution

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Pollution Prevention, Mitigation and Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 14 September 2026 | Viewed by 1983

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Wentao Yang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Key Laboratory of Karst Georesources and Environment, Ministry of Education, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, China
Interests: heavy metal(loid)s; microplastic; contamination; soil remediation; biochar; rice; health risk assessment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Xiao Deng

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. College of Environment and Ecology, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, China
2. Yuelushan Laboratory, Changsha 410128, China
Interests: heavy metal; rice; ratoon rice; phytoremediation; hyperaccumulator; crop rotation; safe utilization

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue focuses on cutting-edge research on the management and sustainable development of agricultural soil pollution, including the contamination mechanisms, ecological effects and synergistic management strategies of heavy metals (cadmium, lead, arsenic, etc.) and emerging pollutants (microplastics, antibiotics, perfluorinated compounds, etc.) in agricultural soil. We are committed to promoting multidisciplinary cross-disciplinary research, exploring the migration and transformation patterns of pollutants in soil–crop systems, source–sink relationships and their long-term impacts on the safety of the food chain, and encouraging the innovation of health risk assessment methods based on bioavailability and exposure scenarios.

The journal gives priority to manuscripts on the following research areas:

  • Environmental fate of contaminants in agricultural soils;
  • Research on pollutant soil–plant interface processes and ecotoxicological effects;
  • Plant–microbe synergistic remediation of agricultural polluted soil;
  • Novel functional materials (e.g., biochar, nanomaterials) and green remediation technologies.

Dr. Wentao Yang
Prof. Dr. Xiao Deng
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. 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

  • agricultural soil contamination
  • agricultural sustainability
  • heavy metals
  • emerging contaminants
  • fate
  • ecotoxicological effects
  • green remediation technologies
  • health risk assessment

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 10017 KB  
Article
Calcium-Modified Coal-Based Humin Waste Residue: Enhanced Cadmium Remediation in Combined Soil–Plant Systems
by Fei Wang, Nan Guo, Yuxin Ma, Zhi Yuan, Xiaofang Qin, Yun Jia, Guixi Chen, Haokai Yu, Ping Wang and Zhanyong Fu
Sustainability 2026, 18(2), 1103; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18021103 - 21 Jan 2026
Viewed by 341
Abstract
Coal-based humic acid waste residue is a solid waste generated during the production of humic acid products. The extraction of coal-based humin (NHM) from such residues presents an effective approach for solid waste resource recovery. In this study, a novel calcium-based humin (Ca-NHM) [...] Read more.
Coal-based humic acid waste residue is a solid waste generated during the production of humic acid products. The extraction of coal-based humin (NHM) from such residues presents an effective approach for solid waste resource recovery. In this study, a novel calcium-based humin (Ca-NHM) was synthesized via a low-temperature-assisted method. The material was characterized and its cadmium passivation mechanism was investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), zeta potential analysis (Zeta), carbon nuclear magnetic resonance (13C-CPMAS-NMR), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Soil incubation experiments were conducted to determine the actual cadmium adsorption capacity of coal-based humin in soils and to evaluate the stability of cadmium passivation. Plant cultivation experiments were carried out to verify the effects of coal-based humin on migration and transformation in soil, as well as on cadmium bioefficiency. The results showed that Ca-NHM passivated soil cadmium through multiple mechanisms such as ion exchange, electrostatic adsorption, complexation reactions, and physical adsorption. Compared with NHM, Ca-NHM exhibited a 69.71% increase in passivation efficiency, and a 2.44% reduction in cadmium leaching concentration. In Ca-NHM treatments, the above- and below-ground biomass of pakchoi increased by 18.06%, and 80.95%, respectively, relative to the control group. Furthermore, Ca-NHM enhanced the cadmium resistance of pakchoi, reduced the enrichment coefficient, activity coefficient, and activity-to-stability ratio in the above-ground portion of pakchoi, and maintained a transfer coefficient below 1, thereby alleviating cadmium toxicity. In summary, this study provides a theoretical foundation for understanding the mechanisms by which coal-based humin mitigates cadmium toxicity in pakchoi. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Risk Assessment and Remediation of Soil Pollution)
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20 pages, 2540 KB  
Article
Different Impacts of Early and Late Rice Straw Incorporation on Cadmium Bioavailability and Accumulation in Double-Cropping Rice
by Zhong Hu, Qian Qi, Yuhui Zeng, Yuling Liu, Xiao Deng, Yang Yang, Qingru Zeng, Shijing Zhang and Si Luo
Sustainability 2025, 17(17), 7727; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17177727 - 27 Aug 2025
Viewed by 1248
Abstract
Straw return is widely adopted to promote agricultural sustainability, but it can also increase cadmium (Cd) bioavailability in contaminated paddy soils, potentially leading to higher Cd accumulation in rice grains. Although numerous studies have investigated straw incorporation, the specific differences between early- and [...] Read more.
Straw return is widely adopted to promote agricultural sustainability, but it can also increase cadmium (Cd) bioavailability in contaminated paddy soils, potentially leading to higher Cd accumulation in rice grains. Although numerous studies have investigated straw incorporation, the specific differences between early- and late-season straw return regarding Cd dynamics within double-cropping rice systems remain inadequately characterized. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted a two-year field experiment comparing early-rice (ER) and late-rice (LR) straw return, complemented by controlled pot experiments simulating ER (ER-S, ER-CK; July–September 2023) and LR (LR-S, LR-CK; December 2022–March 2023) straw incorporation. The results revealed that the Total-Cd exhibited an upward trend following both ER and LR straw incorporation. The ER treatment caused a rapid yet short-lived increase in CaCl2-extractable Cd (CaCl2-Cd) concentration, peaking around 60 days following straw return and exhibiting a 28.83% increase compared to the LR treatment. In contrast, the LR treatment induced a slower but more prolonged Cd release, with CaCl2-Cd concentration peaking around 210 days and exhibiting a 34.89% increase relative to the ER treatment. Additionally, at the late-rice stage, grain Cd concentration in the ER treatment increased by 23.64% relative to the LR treatment. In the subsequent year, grain Cd concentrations in the LR treatment increased significantly by 32.12% to 45.08% compared to the ER treatment for both early- and late-rice crops. These differences were attributed to variations in straw decomposition rates, soil pH, and redox potential between warm, aerobic summer–autumn conditions and cooler, anaerobic winter–spring conditions. This suggests that returning late-rice straw constitutes an elevated hazard to soil health and rice safety compared to early-rice straw return. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Risk Assessment and Remediation of Soil Pollution)
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