Heavy Metal Contamination of Food and Forage Crops

Submissions open: 15 Feb. 2023

Submission deadline: 31 July 2023

Environmental pollution of soil, irrigation water and air can increase heavy metal contents in food and feed crops. Consumption of heavy metal-contaminated food is associated with many diseases, including cancers and mutagenesis in humans and animals. Plant roots can absorb heavy metals from soil and water and accumulate it in their edible parts. This accumulation of heavy metals in edible tissues creates an avenue for them to enter the food chain. Additionally, heavy metals can negatively affect growth, metabolism, and yield of crops and disrupt ecosystem services. Plants up-regulate defense-related genes to mitigate abiotic stresses. Similarly, modulation in antioxidant enzymes enables plants to tolerate metal toxicity. Moreover, some plants survive a metal-contaminated regime by sequestering metal within their root vacuoles or through other exclusion systems.

1.      Studies on sources of heavy metal pollution in agricultural and natural soils, irrigation waters, and its bioavailability in the food chain;

2.      Insights into morpho-physiological and molecular mechanisms underlying heavy metal toxicity in food crops;

3.      Variations in metabolism, including gene expression, biosynthesis of enzymes, metabolites, phytohormones, and other omics- studies in food and feed crops subjected to heavy metal stress;

4.      Search for promising methods including nanotechnology, transgenic tactics and other practices for extenuation of heavy metal stress;

5.      Comprehensive exploration of heavy metal stress alleviation mechanism in food crops;

6.      Influence of heavy metal toxicity on post-harvest physiology and shelf life of plant-based food;

7.     Evidence of heavy metals entering the food chain either through animal models or by sampling within livestock and human populations;

8.   Public health studies of heavy metal contaminated foods in urban and peri-urban regions, including impacts on sociology, economics, and regional planning.

Aaron Daigh, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA

Sergio Saia, University of Pisa, Italy

Mehmood Ali Noor, University of Okara, Pakistan

Improving Livability in Urban Areas: Examining Urban and Peri-Urban Soil and Plant Management

Submissions open: 31 Aug. 2022

Submission deadline: 31 Mar. 2023

Gardens, urban parks, and private green spaces are hotspots for biodiversity and provide habitats for many key organisms above and belowground. They share a non-sealed soil, which can offer a wide range of ecosystem services, including carbon (C) storage, water storage, biomass production and nutrient cycling. Little is known about urban soil management and its quality. This special issue will be an outlet for case studies, evidence and synthesis on urban green spaces, gardens and parks and their soil quality, including biotic and abiotic site characteristics combined with land-use history and garden management. Many topics need to be studied in the urban context.

• Eco-physiological soil quality indices

• Soil disturbance in annual vegetable and flower beds

• Soil heavy metal

• Effect of spatial patterns of industry and traffic

• Relationship between trees species and density in urban environments

• Importance of urban soils for ecosystem services delivery (green spaces)

• Importance for urban agriculture for nutrient recycling and climate resilience

• Potential risks

• Urban agriculture and urban soil management

• Innovative ways to increase nutrient cycle and resource efficiency and the best way by integrating modeling using farm collected data and theoretical models

• Pot and field experiment success stories

• Roof farming and turfgrasses

• Review articles and original research articles that report field and tree crop application of smart farming using portable sensors, drones, satellite data, IoT

Roberta Bulgari, University of Turin, Italy

Calogero Schillaci, European Commission ISPRA, Italy

Ahlem Tlili, University of Tunis El Manar, Tunisia

Erdona Demiraj, Agricultural University of Tirana, Albania

Yushu Xia, Woodwell Climate Research Center, USA