Soil Microorganisms and Plant Growth
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sustainability and Applications".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 June 2022) | Viewed by 6254
Special Issue Editors
Interests: soil microbiome; microbial ecology; protist–microbiome interaction; plant health
Interests: plant–microbe interactions; development of bio-organic fertilizers
Interests: plant–microbe interactions; synthetic microbial consortia; plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria; Bacillus
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Plant performance plays crucial roles in sustaining the increasing food demands of the growing human population. Chemical-based fertilizers and pesticides are widely used in agricultural systems to enhance plant performance, i.e., promoting crop production and controlling soil-borne diseases. However, the overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides has negative effects on ecosystem services. Soil microorganisms including rhizosphere microorganisms play key roles in plant growth promotion and disease suppression, which are fundamental to sustainable agriculture. Understanding the roles of soil microorganisms and their interactions with host plants is important for developing helpful microbe products to reduce pesticide and fertilizer inputs in sustainable agriculture. However, most soil microorganism research linking with plant performance has particularly focused on single microbial components of bacterial or fungal communities. It remains largely unclear how other soil microorganisms, for example, viruses, unicellular eukaryotes (for example, predatory protists), and even soil small animal nematodes, contribute to plant performance. With this Special Issue titled “Soil Microorganisms and Plant Performance”, we aim to 1) increase our understanding of how all microorganisms (in addition to single microbial components) and their functionalities influence plant performance in sustainable agriculture; 2) decipher how microbial interactions within the diverse soil microbiomes determine plant performances, for example, interactions between microbiome predators and microbiomes, or bacteriophages interacting with plant-associated microbiomes; and 3) seek research of new microbial species (not limited to bacteria, fungi, viruses, and protists) with innovative mechanisms to enhance plant performance, and how the applications of those new microbial species affect soil microbial communities and ecosystem services. Not being limited to the above topics, other topics of research concerning soil microorganisms and plant performance in sustainable agriculture are also welcome.
Dr. Wu Xiong
Dr. Nan Zhang
Dr. Zhihui Xu
Dr. Jia Li
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- soil microorganisms
- microbiome
- whole microbial communities
- microbial ecology
- viruses
- protists
- microbial interaction
- soil function
- plant performance
- sustainable agriculture
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