Dear Colleagues,

Salinity is a shaping factor affecting the ecology of microorganisms, plants, and animals in saline and hypersaline environments. A number of terrestrial and aquatic environments, including hypersaline lakes, deep-sea brines, saltpans, subsurface briny aquifers, saline soils, and salt flats are characterized by high salt concentrations. Organisms living in these environments have evolved various and complex adaptation strategies to survive under these stressful conditions. The overall biodiversity, organism adaptative strategies, and their salt tolerance mechanisms, as well as their possible applications in biotechnological fields, need to be investigated to extend the knowledge of their ecology, to trace the presence of possible harmful organisms, and to recognize and study organisms showing possible practical applications. In addition, for some of these unique environments, it is critical to pursue a sustainable approach to conservation and management in order to enhance their ecological status and to limit and/or avoid negative impacts that can lead to a loss in habitats and biodiversity. In addition to naturally occurring salinity (primary salinity), salinity resulting from anthropogenic activities (secondary salinity, including irrigation and drainage waters as well as soil and water amendments) leads to the salinization of soil, surface water, or groundwater, with notable impacts at the environmental, social, and economic levels. While the salinization of soils represents a global threat to arid and semi-arid regions and to agricultural lands, the salinization of streams and rivers can threaten the ecological health and biodiversity of these systems, in addition to rendering the water unfit for human consumption. In this context, the evaluation of feasible and efficient biotechnological solutions, effective management approaches, as well as the identification and development of salt-tolerant crop varieties are required to improve or solve some of the mentioned environmental and social issues within a sustainable framework.

Topics include, but are not limited to:

• Chemical and biological diversity of salt-affected environments and/or their possible use in industrial and environmental biotechnology;
• Technological and/or management strategies to improve or solve environmental and social issues related to the salinization of soils, waters, and groundwaters.

This Special Issue calls for contributions across a broad range of areas to provide a comprehensive overview of these aspects. In this context, we welcome the submission of high-quality articles and reviews authored by basic or applied scientists, addressing the aforementioned topics.

Dr. Elisa Gamalero
Dr. Susanna Gorrasi
Dr. Giorgia Novello
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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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.

• salt-affected environments
• primary and secondary salinity
• salinization
• biodiversity
• halophiles
• halophytes
• salt tolerance
• conservation strategies
• management strategies
• biotechnological applications