Agricultural Land and Environmental Risks: Evidence, Assessment and Conservation Transition

  • 4,665

    Total downloads

  • 26k

    Total views and downloads

Download PDFDownload EPUB

Submit your idea

You will be redirected to our submission process.

Submit your manuscript summarySubmit your manuscript

About this Research Topic

Submission closed

Background

Meeting increasing food demands in an environmentally sustainable manner is a worldwide challenge. Agricultural land covers 38% of the world's land area and produces about 30% of the world's net primary products to meet human needs. It is the expansion and intensification of arable land that has driven the huge increase in global food production over the past few decades, which is a crucial way to achieve the "zero hunger" goal of the United Nations (UN). However, high-intensity use and uncontrolled expansion of agricultural land have caused many environmental problems, like overexploitation of groundwater, greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss, and serious nitrogen or phosphorus pollution. Unsustainable arable land use beyond the environmental limits affects the stability of the natural system. Therefore, how to increase food production sustainably while reducing the environmental impact has become a global issue that should be considered for realizing Sustainable Development Goals.

Given the significance of sustainable agricultural land use for global food security, our research topic seeks to bring together perspectives and empirical studies of sustainable agricultural land use and environmental risk management related to land intensification and expansion. Specifically, we seek contributions to sustainable agricultural land use transition within the environmental limits. This Research Topic will help to (1) identify factors responsible for environmental risks of agricultural land use and evaluate its impacts; (2) highlight the costs and risks associated with policies and solutions to environmental problems; and (3) provide examples, concepts, and pathways of sustainable agricultural land-use transition. The Research Topic will be of great interest and value to researchers, decision-makers, and educators across a wide range of fields, including farming, ecology, conservation, planning, economy, sociology, and environmental history.

Hypothesis and Theory, Methods, Original Research, Policy and Practice Reviews, Review, and empirical contributions are encouraged by established and early-career researchers from across and between the social, economic, geography, ecology, natural, and inter-and transdisciplinary sciences. We welcome contributions from fields that have examined the harms or benefits of agricultural land use that environmental processes and phenomena have been dealt with in certain regions (for example, vulnerability, disaster risk reduction, and risk assessment) in this Research Topic. Examples of possible subject areas include but are not limited to those answering the following questions:
• What is the process of agricultural land intensification and expansion?
• What are the environmental risks of agricultural land intensification and expansion, and what are the characteristics of these risks in space and time?
• How to evaluate the environmental risks of agricultural land intensification and expansion?
• How do agricultural land intensification and expansion lead to these environmental risks, and how to quantify the paths?
• How to weigh the trade-off between environmental impacts and food security?
• What are the costs and risks associated with policies and solutions to environmental problems?
• How to realize sustainable transformation of the agricultural land use system?


The Topic Editors wish to thank Dr Eric Koomen for his editorial contribution and assistance in the realization of this collection.

Keywords: Multiple environmental risks assessment, Agricultural land intensification and expansion, Trade-off between environmental effects and food security, Sustainable intensification, Sustainable agricultural land use transition

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.

Topic editors

Frequently asked questions

  • Frontiers' Research Topics are collaborative hubs built around an emerging theme.Defined, managed, and led by renowned researchers, they bring communities together around a shared area of interest to stimulate collaboration and innovation.

    Unlike section journals, which serve established specialty communities, Research Topics are pioneer hubs, responding to the evolving scientific landscape and catering to new communities.

  • The goal of Frontiers' publishing program is to empower research communities to actively steer the course of scientific publishing. Our program was implemented as a three-part unit with fixed field journals, flexible specialty sections, and dynamically emerging Research Topics, connecting communities of different sizes and maturity.

    Research Topics originate from the scientific community. Many of our Research Topics are suggested by existing editorial board members who have identified critical challenges or areas of interest in their field.

  • As an editor, Research Topics will help you build your journal, as well as your community, around emerging, cutting-edge research. As research trailblazers, Research Topics attract high-quality submissions from leading experts all over the world.

    A thriving Research Topic can potentially evolve into a new specialty section if there is sustained interest and a growing community around it.

  • Each Research Topic must be approved by the specialty chief editor, and it falls under the editorial oversight of our editorial boards, supported by our in-house research integrity team. The same standards and rigorous peer review processes apply to articles published as part of a Research Topic as for any other article we publish.

    In 2023, 80% of the Research Topics we published were edited or co-edited by our editorial board members, who are already familiar with their journal's scope, ethos, and publishing model. All other topics are guest edited by leaders in their field, each vetted and formally approved by the specialty chief editor.

  • Publishing your article within a Research Topic with other related articles increases its discoverability and visibility, which can lead to more views, downloads, and citations. Research Topics grow dynamically as more published articles are added, causing frequent revisiting, and further visibility.

    As Research Topics are multidisciplinary, they are cross-listed in several fields and section journals – increasing your reach even more and giving you the chance to expand your network and collaborate with researchers in different fields, all focusing on expanding knowledge around the same important topic.

    Our larger Research Topics are also converted into ebooks and receive social media promotion from our digital marketing team.

     

  • Frontiers offers multiple article types, but it will depend on the field and section journals in which the Research Topic will be featured. The available article types for a Research Topic will appear in the drop-down menu during the submission process.

    Check available article types here 

  • Yes, we would love to hear your ideas for a topic. Most of our Research Topics are community-led and suggested by researchers in the field. Our in-house editorial team will contact you to talk about your idea and whether you’d like to edit the topic. If you’re an early-stage researcher, we will offer you the opportunity to coordinate your topic, with the support of a senior researcher as the topic editor. 

    Suggest your topic here 

  • A team of guest editors (called topic editors) lead their Research Topic. This editorial team oversees the entire process, from the initial topic proposal to calls for participation, the peer review, and final publications.

    The team may also include topic coordinators, who help the topic editors send calls for participation, liaise with topic editors on abstracts, and support contributing authors. In some cases, they can also be assigned as reviewers.

  • As a topic editor (TE), you will take the lead on all editorial decisions for the Research Topic, starting with defining its scope. This allows you to curate research around a topic that interests you, bring together different perspectives from leading researchers across different fields and shape the future of your field. 

     

    You will choose your team of co-editors, curate a list of potential authors, send calls for participation and oversee the peer review process, accepting or recommending rejection for each manuscript submitted.

  • As a topic editor, you're supported at every stage by our in-house team. You will be assigned a single point of contact to help you on both editorial and technical matters. Your topic is managed through our user-friendly online platform, and the peer review process is supported by our industry-first AI review assistant (AIRA).

  • If you’re an early-stage researcher, we will offer you the opportunity to coordinate your topic, with the support of a senior researcher as the topic editor. This provides you with valuable editorial experience, improving your ability to critically evaluate research articles and enhancing your understanding of the quality standards and requirements for scientific publishing, as well as the opportunity to discover new research in your field, and expand your professional network.

  • Yes, certificates can be issued on request. We are happy to provide a certificate for your contribution to editing a successful Research Topic.

  • Research Topics thrive on collaboration and their multi-disciplinary approach around emerging, cutting-edge themes, attract leading researchers from all over the world.

  • As a topic editor, you can set the timeline for your Research Topic, and we will work with you at your pace. Typically, Research Topics are online and open for submissions within a few weeks and remain open for participation for 6 – 12 months. Individual articles within a Research Topic are published as soon as they are ready.

    Find out more about our Research Topics

  • Our fee support program ensures that all articles that pass peer review, including those published in Research Topics, can benefit from open access – regardless of the author's field or funding situation.

    Authors and institutions with insufficient funding can apply for a discount on their publishing fees. A fee support application form is available on our website.

  • In line with our mission to promote healthy lives on a healthy planet, we do not provide printed materials. All our articles and ebooks are available under a CC-BY license, so you can share and print copies.

     

Impact

  • 26kTopic views
  • 19kArticle views
  • 4,665Article downloads
View impact