Environmental Microbiology, Plant Health and Sustainable Agricultural Practices
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Agriculture".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 13 February 2027 | Viewed by 443
Special Issue Editors
Interests: environmental sciences; plant physiology; oliviculture; sustainable farming systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue focuses on environmental microbiology, plant health and sustainable agricultural practices, emphasizing how microbial communities and processes, as well as sustainable management practices, can be harnessed to enhance crop productivity, resilience and ecosystem services while reducing environmental impacts. The Issue highlights both fundamental and applied research on soil, rhizosphere, phyllosphere and endophytic microorganisms, as well as plant–microbe–environment interactions under diverse agroecological conditions.
Contributions may address microbial-driven nutrient cycling, biological control of plant diseases, sustainable food systems, including climate-smart agriculture, biodiversity conservation, soil health restoration and reduced dependency on chemical inputs, plant growth–promoting microorganisms, microbiome engineering and microbial responses to land-use change, climate stress and agricultural intensification.
The scope of the Special Issue is intentionally interdisciplinary, bridging microbiology, plant science, agronomy, ecology, environmental science and sustainability science. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Soil, rhizosphere and plant-associated microbiomes and their functional roles
- Microbial contributions to nutrient use efficiency (N, P, C cycling)
- Microbial-mediated plant stress tolerance (drought, salinity, heat, pathogens)
- Sustainable disease management and biological control strategies
- Microbial indicators and biomarkers for soil and agroecosystem health
- Impacts of agricultural practices (e.g., organic farming, reduced tillage, biofertilizers) on soil quality and food production
- Integration of omics technologies, modeling and monitoring tools to assess sustainability outcomes
- Socio-economic, policy and management implications of sustainable farming practices and sustainability-driven agricultural innovations.
The Special Issue welcomes experimental studies, field trials, meta-analyses, modeling approaches, methodological advances and integrative reviews, with relevance across different cropping systems and geographic regions.
The purpose of this Special Issue is to advance knowledge on translating environmental microbiology and sustainable agriculture into healthier plants and safer food through scientifically robust, economically viable and environmentally sound solutions, positioning environmental microbiology as both a scientific foundation and an applied tool for sustainable development to supplement existing literature, align with the journal’s mission and ultimately contribute to long-term food security, environmental protection and sustainable development by addressing scientific, socio-economic and integrated challenges in sustainable agriculture.
Dr. Luca Lombardo
Dr. Veronica Vizzarri
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
- sustainability
- biodiversity conservation
- soil health restoration
- rhizosphere
- food safety
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