Advances in Soil Pollution Research: Risk Assessment and Ecosystems Management

Soil pollution is a global threat that goes easily unnoticed but can have a profound impact on the functioning of ecosystems and on human health. Apart from naturally elevated levels of potentially toxic elements and compounds, most contaminants originate from human activities, such as industrial processes and mining, poor waste management, unsustainable farming practices, and environmental accidents (e.g. contaminant spills). The consequences of soil contamination are quite diverse and can depend on the environmental setting and the properties of pollutants. The most critical issues in soil pollution research are the assessment and evaluation of pollution, including the distribution of pollutants, their mobility, and chemical speciation, as well as the evaluation of the probability of soil-water-plant-atmosphere transfer, accumulation in plants, and transfer through the food chain.

This Research Topic welcomes original research and review articles exploring the status fate and ecological risks of organic and inorganic pollutants in plant-soil systems. In addition, we consider manuscripts that deal with strategies to restore polluted soils. We welcome laboratory, greenhouse, and field research including, but not limited to, the themes below. Suggested topic editors for submissions are in italics.

i) new methodological approaches to assess soil pollution (ed. P. Midula, O. Wiche)

ii) pollution status in different settings and regions (ed. C. Ferreira, Z. Kalantari)

iii) active and legacy pollution sources and pollutant transport within the soil (ed. O. Wiche, P. Midula, Z. Kalantari)

iv) plant-soil-microbe relationships controlling the mobility, chemical speciation, and plant uptake of pollutants and economically valuable metal(oid)s (ed. O. Wiche, L. Symochko, P. Midula)

v) ecotoxicological considerations and environmental health risk assessment (ed. P. Midula, C. Ferreira, L. Symochko)

vi) strategies to recover and restore polluted soils; such as nature-based solutions including bioremediation and biomining for soil remediation (ed. C. Ferreira, Z. Kalantari, L. Symochko, O. Wiche)

Keywords: soil, metals, metalloids, pollution index, bioavailability, ecotoxicity, biotechnology, remediation, environmental health, bioremediation, nature based solutions

Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.