Rethinking Agriculture to Meet Food, Fiber and Energy Demands

Dear Colleagues,

In society’s quest to feed an increasing population, sustain our economic growth, and meet energy and fiber demands, agriculture has intensified. To meet future demands sustainably, it is vital to use land and water efficiently and to improve environmental and ecological services of agricultural land while providing higher economic value for farmers despite the growing pressure of climate change.

Sustainability is a cross-disciplinary peer-reviewed journal that publishes studies related to sustainability. The main objective of this Special Issue is to compile a multidisciplinary body of knowledge to advance our understanding to secure food, fiber, and energy current and future demands in an environmentally and ecologically sustainable way.

Taking a holistic approach, articles may include the following topics:

1. Management and land cover strategies in agricultural and managed systems that increase one or more ecosystem services of agroecosystems (managed forests and grasslands, crop and grazing lands). Ecosystem services include, among others, greenhouse gas (GHG) and water regulation (e.g., fields, livestock, manure emission), soil carbon (C) sequestration, biogeochemistry of trace elements, soil biogeochemical and physical properties, biodiversity (animals, plants and soil microorganisms), and water quality.
2. Strategies that efficiently improve the use of land, nutrients, and water and that have a positive impact on the productivity of agricultural and managed systems.
3. Bioengineering strategies to increase photosynthesis and productivity.
4. Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) strategies associated with agriculture.
5. Impact of changes in climate and climate extremes on ecosystem services and productivity of agricultural and managed systems.
6. The impact of traditional practices on ecosystems, climate, and the environment. Examples include the impact of herbicide and fertilizer use, of irrigation and tillage practices, and of traditional land cover management on ecosystem goods and services.
7. Modeling and life cycle assessments to assess management and land cover strategies that increase the sustainability of agricultural and managed systems.
8. Integration of agronomic, environmental, ecological, and economic aspects of management and land cover strategies. 
9. Innovative techniques and methodologies to measure productivity and biogeochemical processes, including biogeochemical methods, remote sensing, and modeling.

Envisioned contributions include original research, review papers, communications, and notes that investigate relevant topics across diverse spatial (from soil microbes to plants, soil and the atmosphere; from local to global) and temporal (past, current, future; short- and long-term) scales. Studies with field, mesocosm and lab experiments are welcome, as well as modeling and technical-oriented papers.

Dr. Nuria Gomez-Casanovas
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.