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Special Issue "Remediation of Soil Pollution and Improvement of Soil Health"

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A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Agricultural Biosystem and Biological Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2023) | Viewed by 3404

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Beini Gong

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Guest Editor

College of Natural Resources and Environment, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China
Interests: soil pollution remediation; soil pollution control; remediation techniques

Dr. Zhujian Huang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

College of Natural Resources and Environment, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China
Interests: water and wastewater treatment; resource utilization of agricultural waste
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Xiaoyun Mao
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

College of Natural Resources and Environment, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China
Interests: resource utilization of agricultural waste; agricultural environmental protection

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Soil health and safety is vital for crop production. Environmental pollutants could accumulate in soils and sneak into the food chain, thereby posing a major threat to food security and ecological safety, or their presence in soil can adversely affect soil properties, leading to deteriorated soil health and decreased crop production. Pollutants can enter the soil through polluted air, water, or solid waste. Hence, to tackle the problem of soil pollution, discharge to the soil should be treated before use, or polluted soil should be remediated. Various techniques, including physical, chemical, and biological remediation techniques, have been researched and applied in soil pollution mitigation. Mechanisms of pollutants removal include adsorption, mobilization, hyperaccumulation, deactivation, and degradation.

Dr. Beini Gong
Dr. Zhujian Huang
Prof. Dr. Xiaoyun Mao
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 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. Agronomy 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 2600 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 pollution
soil pollutant remediation
soil pollution control
remediation techniques
remediation mechanism
soil health

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

Open AccessArticle

Assessment of the Effects of Fencing Enclosure on Soil Quality Based on Minimum Data Set in Biru County of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, China

and

Agronomy 2023, 13(6), 1558; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13061558 - 06 Jun 2023

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Abstract

Fencing enclosures play an important role in improving ecological quality. There is a direct impact of implementing fencing enclosures on the change in soil quality. The soil quality index was used to examine the effects of fencing enclosures for different years (7 and 11 years) on soil quality in Biru County of Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, China. The fencing enclosure significantly increased soil water content, non-capillary porosity, soil organic matter, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen, and significantly decreased the soil bulk density. The soil quality gradually improved as the fencing enclosure time length increased, probably due to the increase of vegetation coverage and biomass under the fencing enclosure. The minimum data set was composed of soil organic matter, capillary porosity, total potassium, and non-capillary porosity. The minimum data set was significantly correlated with the total data set and could replace the total data set for soil quality evaluation in the fencing enclosure project area. In summary, our study reflects that fencing enclosures significantly improve soil quality, and the implementation of the fencing enclosure project will effectively curb land degradation in Biru County of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, China. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remediation of Soil Pollution and Improvement of Soil Health)

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Open AccessArticle

Assessment of Polluted Soil Remediation Using Bacterial Community Tolerance to Heavy Metals as an Indicator

Claudia Campillo-Cora

Diego Soto-Gómez

Manuel Arias-Estévez

and

David Fernández-Calviño

Agronomy 2022, 12(10), 2280; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy12102280 - 23 Sep 2022

Viewed by 817

Abstract

The assessment of remediation on metal-polluted soils is usually focused on total and/or bioavailable metal content. However, these chemical variables do not provide direct information about reductions in heavy metals pressure on soil microorganisms. We propose the use of bacterial communities to evaluate the efficiency of three remediation techniques: crushed mussel shell (CMS) and pine bark (PB) as soil amendments and EDTA-washing. A soil sample was polluted with different doses of Cu, Ni, and Zn (separately). After 30 days of incubation, the remediation techniques were applied, and bacterial community tolerance to heavy metals determined. If bacterial communities develop tolerance, it is an indicator that the metal is exerting toxicity on them. Soil bacterial communities developed tolerance to Cu, Ni, and Zn in response to metal additions. After remediation, bacterial communities showed decreases in bacterial community tolerance to Cu, Ni, and Zn for all remediation techniques. For Cu and Ni, soil EDTA-washing showed the greatest reduction of bacterial community tolerance to Cu and Ni, respectively, while for Zn the soil amendment with PB was the most effective remediation technique. Thus, bacterial community tolerance to heavy metals successfully detect differences in the effectiveness of the three remediation techniques. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remediation of Soil Pollution and Improvement of Soil Health)

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Open AccessArticle

Effects of Earthworms and Phosphate-Solubilizing Bacteria on Carbon Sequestration in Soils Amended with Manure and Slurry: A 4-Year Field Study

and

Agronomy 2022, 12(9), 2064; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy12092064 - 29 Aug 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1089

Abstract

The application of organisms as part of soil remediation can accelerate the decomposition of organic matter and the carbon cycle. To explore the synergistic effects of earthworms and phosphate-solubilizing bacteria on C accumulation in artificially improved soils of manure and in slurry-amended soil, a dry slope of land was established on the hillside of a large pig farm. Experiments involving six treatments were performed, including control (CK), pig manure (Pm), and pig manure + slurry (Pm + S) treatments, as well as manure + slurry + earthworms (Te), manure + slurry + phosphate-solubilizing bacteria (Tb), and manure + slurry + earthworms + bacteria (T(e + b)). Compared with the CK, both the Pm + S and T(e + b) treatments significantly increased the SOC content. In particular, the T(e + b) treatment increased the SOC by 196%. The synergistic effect of T(e + b) on the increase in organic carbon was consistent with the results of soil-carbon sequestration. After comprehensive fertilization, soil-carbon sequestration reached 2.87 Mg C hm⁻², while stable organic carbon increased to 1.88 Mg C hm⁻². It was also consistent with the result of PCA analysis in which applying earthworms promoted an increase in insoluble organic carbon. Therefore, in the future, earthworms and organic fertilizers can be applied to promote organic carbon sequestration on dry sloping land. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remediation of Soil Pollution and Improvement of Soil Health)

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