Managing and Regulating Plant (Vegetation)–Environment (Soil-Affected Land, Coastal Zone and Arid Areas) Interactions for a Better Eco-Environment and Sustainable Productivity
A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Ecology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 May 2024) | Viewed by 12244
Special Issue Editor
2. Salt-Soil Agricultural Center(SSAC), Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences(JAAS), Nanjing 210014, China
Interests: plant stress biology; molecular biology and biotechnology; plant (vegetation)–environment interactions; soil biology; plant nutrition, physiology and ecology under abiotic stress; bio-measures for salt-affected soil improvement and costal zone eco-environmental restoration; eco-marine fishery
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Plants are generally sessile organisms and are frequently exposed to stressful environments such as salt, water deficit (drought), low and high temperatures (heat and cold damage), and deficiency as well as excess in mineral nutrients. All factors related to water (including ocean water), soil, air, and the biosphere will influence the growth, development, and productivity of plants. Plants have evolved an array of complicated mechanisms to cope with these stresses. Environmental plant science is a research area that aims to elucidate how plants respond and adapt to stressful environments by monitoring the responding process and is an important theme of contemporary plant biology. Only plants can provide oxygen, food, feed, fibers, and building materials, and they are a diverse source of industrial and pharmaceutical chemicals. In addition, they are centrally important to the health of ecosystems and the management and maintenance of a sustainable biosphere. So, in an ever-changing world, plant biology is of the utmost importance for securing humankind's future well-being. Currently, plant biology is diversified into agricultural science, marine science, aquaculture, and soil science from the molecular level to ecosystem scale. It uses the latest developments in computer science, optics, molecular biology, and multi-omics to address challenges in model systems and agricultural crops and explores the form, function, development, diversity, reproduction, evolution, and uses of both higher and lower plants, as well as their interactions with other organisms throughout the biosphere.
For the past 3 decades, plants have been extensively, deeply, and systemically studied, especially in terms of gene expression and regulation, immunity communication, signal transduction and recognition, and gene editing, but less attention has been paid to plant–environment interaction processes, especially in salt-affected soil, coastal zones and arid environments, including low-producing arable land. The above land area makes up about 50% of China’s arable land and 30% of the coastline area of China. Based on plant measures (as the first productivity or environmental indicators), how to monitor the plant (vegetation)–environment interaction process, how to improve soil-affected soils (low-productivity land), how to conduct eco-marine aquaculture, and how to ecologically protect and restore soil environments and coastal zones for sustainable development will remain a global challenge for a long time. All the traditional and modern practical measures for agriculture and eco-environmental construction aim to better manage and regulate plant–environment corresponding relationships, and all their actions and interactions are made true under the SPAC (soil–plant–atmosphere continuum) system, which aims at managing and regulating plant (vegetation)–environment (soil-affected land, coastal zone, and arid areas) interactions for a better eco-environment and sustainable productivity. These actions include various kinds of fertilization, irrigation, and pest control, and interactions include processes, mechanisms, and function performance. Therefore, this Special Issue will mainly focus on, but is not limited to, soil-affected land (including low-productivity land) and the coastal zone environment in terms of improving soil-affected land, eco-marine aquaculture, and eco-restoring coastal zones (from nearshore aquaculture to marshy wetland to coastal zones with decreasing salt concentration). The main areas of interest are listed below:
- Salty soil improvement effect on plants (vegetation);
- Plant (vegetation) responses to the improvement in salt-affected soil and eco-restoration of coastal zones;
- Salty environment (arid land) monitoring for appropriate plant (vegetation) growth strategies;
- Climate factors' impacts on plant (vegetation) growth in salty environments and arid areas;
- Wetland ecology, eco-marine fishery, and impacts on phytoplankton, algae, and coastal plants;
- Monitoring aquaculture evolution and impacts on coastal zone environments;
- Bio-remediation for degraded soil (including polluted soil and low-productivity land ) in combination with microorganism methodology plus straw return land).
Prof. Dr. Hongbo Shao
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- plant–environment interaction
- salt-affected soil
- arid environment
- soil fertility increase and maintenance
- costal zone
- eco-marine fishery
- eco-aquaculture
- improvement
- eco-restoration
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