Adapting Environmental Microbiology for Sustainable Agriculture: Pollution Control, Food Safety and Agroecosystem Functioning
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Pollution Prevention, Mitigation and Sustainability".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 22 March 2027 | Viewed by 104
Editor
Interests: environmental microbiology; biofilm; natural antimicrobial compounds
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The Special Issue presents interdisciplinary research integrating environmental microbiology, agronomy, soil science, biotechnology, food safety, and public health. It covers key topics such as the soil microbiome and its functions in agroecosystems (microbial structure and diversity, microorganisms in biogeochemical cycles, the impact of agricultural practices on microbiome stability, and microbiological indicators of soil quality and degradation), sustainable agriculture (biofertilizers and microbial biostimulants, plant growth-promoting microorganisms, presence and survival of pathogens in agricultural environments including soil, irrigation water, and organic fertilizers), and contamination of organic food (effects of manure and compost on microbiological risk, and comparisons between organic and conventional systems).
The aim of this Special Issue is to integrate knowledge from environmental microbiology and food safety, identify microbiological hazards in sustainable production systems, including organic farming, and develop innovative risk mitigation strategies that maintain the principles of biological intensification. It also supports the transformation of agriculture toward safe, resilient, and environmentally friendly systems.
This Special Issue represents a valuable contribution to the literature because it unites previously separate research areas—environmental microbiology, agroecosystem functioning, organic farming, and food safety—within a coherent, systems-based framework. Instead of examining individual components in isolation, it considers biological and environmental processes across the entire “farm-to-fork” chain. Combining biological intensification with risk assessment highlights both the opportunities and limitations of sustainable agricultural systems. In doing so, it organizes current knowledge and identifies directions for further research and practical applications.
The contribution of this Special Issue to sustainable development can be seen across several dimensions:
- Environmental: reducing chemical inputs, enhancing natural pathogen suppression, lowering pressure on water resources, and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions through improved soil health.
- Economic: minimizing supply chain losses and stabilizing the organic food market.
Overall, this Special Issue contributes meaningfully to sustainable development by integrating environmental protection, food safety, and public health into a single, coherent scientific and applied framework.
Dr. Anna Ligocka
Guest Editor
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-anonymized 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
- environmental microbiology
- sustainable agriculture
- soil microbiome
- organic farming
- food safety
- agroecosystem management
- public health
- soil health
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