Special Issue "Current Developments in Soil Ecotoxicology"

A special issue of Toxics (ISSN 2305-6304). This special issue belongs to the section "Ecotoxicology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2022.

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Maria Luisa Fernandez-Marcos
E-Mail
Guest Editor
Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, University of Santiago de Compostela, Lugo 27002, Spain
Interests: soil science; soil chemistry; environmental chemistry; soil fertility; soil quality; soil management and conservation; nutrient cycling; soil pollution; heavy metals in soil

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Soils do not only produce food and fiber, but they also provide us with numerous ecosystem services. As such, it is of paramount importance that we maintain and improve soil health in order to enhance environmental quality and foster sustainable development. Soil is a living system, and its health can affect any aspect of the entire ecosystem health, including human health. Soil pollution adversely affects soil organisms, jeopardizing soil functions and ecosystem services, and threatens other environmental compartments, such as vegetation, the atmosphere, and surface- and ground-waters.

Pesticides and agrochemicals, fertilizers, persistent organic pollutants, composts and biosolids, heavy metals, PAHs, etc. have long been considered soil pollutants. In recent decades, emerging soil pollutants have increasingly been studied—among them, pharmaceuticals, rare earths, microplastics and nanoplastics, and engineered nanomaterials. In addition to being toxic to soil micro- and macroorganisms, soil pollutants affect plant growth and performance and can be exported to water bodies and to the food chain.

This Special Issue on “Current Developments in Soil Ecotoxicology” aims to gather studies covering various aspects of this topic, and we encourage scientists around the world to contribute original research papers and reviews dealing with soil ecotoxicology. Articles may include but are not limited to the following topics:
  • Toxics in the soil environment
  • Source identification of soil pollutants
  • Monitoring of soil pollutants; analytical techniques
  • Ecotoxicological risk assessment in soil
  • Bioindicators
  • Emerging pollutants in soil
  • Microplastics and nanoplastics in soils
  • Engineered nanoparticles as soil pollutants
  • Mixture toxicity
  • Ecotoxicology of aluminium in soil
  • Soil remediation
  • Nanoremediation

Dr. Maria Luisa Fernandez-Marcos
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 papers will be 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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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. Toxics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 1600 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

  • soil pollutants
  • pollutant monitoring
  • ecotoxicological risk assessment
  • bioindicators
  • emerging pollutants
  • nanomaterials
  • mixture toxicity
  • aluminium toxicity
  • soil remediation
  • nanoremediation

Published Papers

This special issue is now open for submission, see below for planned papers.

Planned Papers

The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.

Title: Potential for Interspecies Toxicity Estimation in Soil Invertebrates
Authors: Mace G. Barron, Faith Lambert
Affiliation: Office of Research & Development, U.S. EPA, Gulf Breeze, FL 32561 USA
Abstract:  Interspecies correlation estimation (ICE) models are linear regressions that predict toxicity to a species with limited data using a known toxicity value in a surrogate species. ICE models are well established for estimating toxicity to fish and aquatic invertebrates but have not been generally developed or applied to soil organisms. Acute and chronic oxicity values for soil invertebrates were compiled from public domain knowledgebases and reports. ICE models were developed as log-log least squares regressions of toxicity values of the same chemicals tested in both the surrogate and predicted species of soil organisms. Model uncertainty was assessed using leave one out cross-validation as the fold difference between a predicted and measured toxicity value. ICE models showed high accuracy within taxa (e.g., Annelid to Annelid), but less prediction accuracy across taxa (e.g., Arthropod to Annelid). This study provides a proof of concept demonstration that ICE models can be developed for soil invertebrates and that they may be used to estimate toxicity for chemicals not tested in another soil invertebrate species.

Title: MERCURY ACCUMULATION IN COMMERCIAL VARIETIES OF Oryza sativa L. CULTIVATED IN SOILS IN THE LA MOJANA REGION, COLOMBIA
Authors: José Marrugo-Negrete et al.
Affiliation: Departamento de Química, Universidad de Córdoba, Colombia
Abstract: The region of La Mojana, Colombia, which is considered one of the most biodiverse and productive areas on the planet, has been impacted by heavy metal pollution from mining activities. One of the primary crops in the region is rice, which has become the food staple of the population. Therefore, the objective of the study was to determine the accumulation of Hg in commercial varieties of O. sativa. The study varieties were Fedearroz 473 (FA473), Fedearroz 2000 (FA2000), and Fedearroz Mocari (FAM). Soil was doped at different Hg levels for the study, using 3 soils with Hg concentrations of 130 (natural), 800 and 1500 µg kg-1. A 32 factorial design was used, with 3 (rice varieties) x 3 (mercury content) and three replicates, for a total of 9 treatments and 27 experimental units. The biomass, the 1000-grain weight and the Hg accumulation in the roots, grains and husks were determined. The highest biomass was obtained for the FA473 variety (308.76±108.26 g), and the lowest was found for FAM (144.04±26.45 g), in both cases, in soil containing 1500 µg kg-1 Hg. The weight per 1000 grains decreased significantly in the soil containing 800 µg of Hg kg-1. The accumulation of Hg in the organs of the evaluated varieties corresponded to 739.04, 74.18 and 17.02 µg kg-1 in the roots, husks and grains, respectively. In soils containing 1500 µg kg-1, the Hg content of the grain was higher than the Chinese standard permissible limit (20 μg Hg kg-1), except in the FA2000 variety, but at natural soil concentrations, the rice intake in terms of the noncarcinogenic health risk (HQ) was lower for the FA473 and FAM varieties. The Hg-enriched soils of La Mojana may endanger the health of future populations due to their potential increased rice consumption. The Hg accumulation in different commercial varieties of O. sativa was evaluated in the region of La Mojana, Colombia, where rice cultivation has become the food staple of the population living in this area. This region is considered one of the most biodiverse and productive areas on the planet, but it has been impacted by heavy metal contamination from mining activities. The varieties studied here were Fedearroz 473 (FA473), Fedearroz 2000 (FA2000) and Fedearroz Mocari (FAM). Soil doped at different Hg levels was evaluated, and there were 3 soils with Hg concentrations of 130 (natural), 800 and 1500 µg kg-1. A 32 factorial design consisted of 3 (rice varieties) x 3 (Hg contents) with three replicates, for a total of 9 treatments and 27 experimental units. The biomass, 1000-grain weight and the accumulation of Hg in the roots, grains and husks, respectively, were determined. The highest biomass was found in the FA473 variety (308.76±108.26 g), and the lowest was found in FAM (144.04±26.45 g), in both cases, in the 1500 µg kg-1 Hg soil. The weight per 1000 grains decreased significantly at 800 µg of Hg kg-1 soil. The accumulation of Hg in the organs of the evaluated varieties corresponded to 739.04, 74.18 and 17.02 µg kg-1 in the roots, husks and grains, respectively. In soils containing 1500 µg kg-1 Hg, the Hg content in the grain was higher than the Chinese standard permissible limit (GB2762-2017) (20 μg Hg kg-1), except in the FA2000 variety, even though under natural soil concentrations, the risk from consuming rice according to the noncarcinogenic health risk (HQ) was lower for the FA473 and FAM varieties. The Hg enrichment in the La Mojana soil may endanger the health of future populations due to their increased rice consumption.

Title: Effects of soil quality on the microbial community pattern of poorly evolved Mediterranean soils
Authors: Antonio Camacho 1*, César Mora 1,2, Antonio Picazo 1, Alba Camacho-Santamans 1,2, Carlos Rochera 1, Luis Roca-Pérez 2, Carlos Gil 3, José Joaquín Ramos-Miras 3, José A. Rodríguez-Martín 4, Rafael Bolu
Affiliation: 1 Cavanilles Institute for Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology, Universitat de Valencia, E-46980 Paterna, València, Spain 2 Departament de Biologia Vegetal, Facultat de Farmàcia, Universitat de València, E-46100 Burjassot, València, Spain 3 Departamento de Edafología y Química Agrícola. Universidad de Almería. Ctra. de Sacramento s/n, E-04120 La Cañada de San Urbano, Almería, Spain 4 Departamento de Medio Ambiente, Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (I.N.I.A), Ctra. de A Coruña 7.5, 28040, Madrid, Spain
Abstract: The relationship between microbial diversity and the soil quality in a Mediterranean context is studied here to test the hypothesis that the community pattern of soil microbiota is affected by the level of anthropogenic soil alteration. Our aim has been to determine the potential effect of organic matter loss and associated changes in soil microbiota in poorly evolved Mediterranean soils (Leptosols and Regosols) suffering anthropogenic stress (i.e., crop and deforestation) in the Mediterranean region. The studied soils correspond to nine different sites which differed in some features, such as parent material, vegetation cover or soil use and types. In agreement with previous studies within the region, physical, chemical and biological characteristics of soils varied notably depending on these factors. Microbial biomass, soil organic matter and moisture decreased in soils as experiencing deforestation, even in those partially degraded to substitution shrubland. We analyzed the patterns of diversity, the community structure and the community relationships by Hill numbers, dbRDA, Bray-Curtis network analysis and PERMANOVA, for Bacteria, Archaea and ectomycorrhizal Fungi profiles obtained from DNA PCR-DGGE analyses (16SRNA gene for bacteria and archaea and the 18SRNA gene for fungi). With regards to microbial community structure, major differences were observed among the mollic and rendzic Leptosols found in a potential forest setting, the haplic Leptosols in substitute shrublands and the haplic Leptosols and calcaric Regosols used for dry croplands. We found a higher microbial richness (OTU’s number) and biomass in forest soils, but nevertheless, the microbial diversity (Shannon Index - H’, Hill number approach) did not vary significantly among soils given the higher evenness with increased soil degradation. Here, we point out how human activities such as agriculture and deforestation led to changes in soil properties, thus affecting its quality as well as producing changes in their microbial diversity and biomass patterns. Our findings demonstrate the potential risk that the replacement of forest areas may have in the conservation of the soil’s microbiota pool, both active and passive, which are basic for the maintenance of biogeochemical processes.

Back to TopTop