There is a general recognition that intensive agricultural systems are highly energy-dependent and extremely vulnerable to pest outbreaks and climatic variability. The worldwide trend in reducing chemical fertilizers and plant protection products is generating a growing interest in environmentally friendly agricultural practices. These strategies include innovative crop management practices by using different living mulching technologies, which enhance pollinators and other beneficial insects' occurrence and activity, by implementing agricultural practices such as crop rotation and intercropping, and by applying microbial-based products. Using biofertilizers, natural substances and microorganisms as plant biostimulants, resistance inducers and biocontrol agents is becoming increasingly popular. In this framework, which encompasses scientific and regulatory aspects, monitoring the impact on bulk and rhizosphere microorganisms and on soil and plant health becomes paramount, mainly to ensure a correct environmental and human health risk assessment. It is noteworthy that different methods can be used to evaluate the impacts of agricultural practices on soil beneficial microorganisms and health, including molecular tools.
The effort expressed in assessing the visible effect of these strategies on plant yield and health status, as well as their economic aspect to the farmers, continue to yield. Less attention is being paid to the indirect effects, like microbial diversity and activity changes, which are also important indicators of ecological equilibrium. Microorganisms inhabiting soil play a pivotal role in ecosystem service provisioning, such as the decomposition of organic matter and nutrient cycling. Moreover, the beneficial microbes could suppress pests and diseases or interact directly with plants to improve their tolerance to various stress conditions. In contrast, the harmful ones could act as disease agents or competitors for nutrient resources.
There have been few experimental studies on this crucial task, and there is little knowledge on the effects that the biofertilizers or the introduction of species as bioinoculants in the soil might have on agroecosystems over time.
Extending the scientific knowledge in this field, using the recent advances in sequencing technologies and bioinformatics tools, together with other molecular and microbiological methods, could shed more light on the soil beneficial microorganism’s potential and plasticity and its interactions with other elements of the agricultural ecosystem.
For this Research Topic, we encourage submissions of Original Research and Review articles responding to the following challenges:
• Can we develop better methodological approaches to assess the impact of environmentally friendly practices (crop rotation, application of biofertilizers, biostimulants, microbial consortia...) on soil beneficial microorganisms and health?
• Can we develop better methodological approaches to validate and guide the use of bioinoculants or biofertilizers or biostimulants for improving soil health?
• To what does extent the changes observed affect soil ecosystem functioning?
• The effects of non-conventional agricultural practices might change over time: to what extent should we evaluate the impact?
• Which are the desired and undesired effects on crops health and soil quality?
Please note that papers that rely solely or primarily on pattern searches and correlations between nucleic acid sequence data sets (e.g., 16S rRNA gene sequence libraries, “metagenomes”, “metatranscriptomes” etc.) and selected environmental parameters
will not be accepted for review.The Topic Editors of this Research Topic are also collaborating on the Excalibur project, which aims to enhance the efficacy of microbial biostimulants capable of improving crop efficiency or the availability of the nutrients already in the soil by stimulating the native soil biodiversity, thus reducing the use of chemical inputs towards a more sustainable agriculture, aligned with the goals of the Common Agricultural Policy, the EU Green Deal, and the Farm to Fork Strategy.
More information can be found at the following website:
excaliburh2020.eu/en/ Conflict of interest: Dr. Massimo Pugliese declares he has a relationship (shareholder) with the private company AgriNewTech srl which is a startup from University of Torino.
