In the present era of industrialization and climate change, the gradually increasing accumulation of toxic compounds in the aquatic ecosystem poses a serious threat. Different anthropogenic activities such as mining, mineral processing, metallurgical operations, and manufacturing of pesticides, fertilizers, and other chemicals are incessantly disposing of inorganic, organic, biological, and polymeric wastes into water bodies around the globe. These wastes comprising a diverse group of emerging pollutants (EPs) like pharmaceuticals, pesticides, heavy metals, petroleum products, hydrocarbons, plastics, endocrine-disrupting compounds, paints, coatings, radionuclides, etc.
These pollutants interact with biomolecules and alter their functional properties causing disruption in metabolic pathways and genetic expression, degradation of biomolecules imparting genotoxicity and cytotoxicity in aquatic flora. At the same time plants have developed inherent mechanism to combat the adverse effects of these pollutants. Therefore, understanding the plant responses to the emerging aquatic pollutants is the need of the hour and recognizing their mitigation strategies will prove beneficial for the management of aquatic pollution.
Water pollution poses a serious threat to aquatic ecosystems, which directly or indirectly impacts human health and society. In the last few decades, human activities like industrialization, urbanization, and modern agricultural practices have generated an enormous amount of waste, which ended in aquatic ecosystems causing critical and non-restorable damage to all life forms. Aquatic plants ranging from phytoplankton to macroscopic types, and belonging to lower groups like algae and bryophyte to angiosperm are all exposed to the deleterious effects of these emerging pollutants (EPs). Some of these plants have quite obviously developed the mechanism to combat the adversities and cope with the challenges imposed by the water pollutants.
In this regard, understanding the plant mechanisms facilitating the avoidance, accumulation, and degradation of these pollutants at the cellular and sub-cellular levels will provide insight into the tolerant species that can be selectively used for the detoxification of EPs in the aquatic ecosystem. Moreover, some species can be used as biological indicators for several pollutants and the identification of biomarkers in this regard will fasten up the real-time analysis of the status of EPs in the aquatic ecosystem.
The authors are requested to contribute to the aspects of the general mechanism of aquatic plants elucidating the plant responses against diverse EPs and the strategies for the detoxification of these pollutants in the aquatic ecosystem. In this purview, the contribution from authors is requested on the enlisted themes, though not exclusive:
- Present status of new emerging pollutants (EPs) in freshwater and marine ecosystem posing serious threats to the aquatic flora
- Responses of the aquatic plants to EPs at the physiological, biochemical, molecular, cellular, and subcellular levels
- Mechanism of plant tolerance to EPs
- Phytoremediation, detoxification, and biotransformation of EPs facilitated by aquatic plants
- OMICS strategies for the identification of biomarkers of EPs contamination in the aquatic ecosystem
- Recent advances in tracing the EPs in the aquatic ecosystem and at the whole plant level
Keywords:
plant abiotic stress, water pollutants, climate change, freshwater, aquatic ecosystem, omics technologies
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.
In the present era of industrialization and climate change, the gradually increasing accumulation of toxic compounds in the aquatic ecosystem poses a serious threat. Different anthropogenic activities such as mining, mineral processing, metallurgical operations, and manufacturing of pesticides, fertilizers, and other chemicals are incessantly disposing of inorganic, organic, biological, and polymeric wastes into water bodies around the globe. These wastes comprising a diverse group of emerging pollutants (EPs) like pharmaceuticals, pesticides, heavy metals, petroleum products, hydrocarbons, plastics, endocrine-disrupting compounds, paints, coatings, radionuclides, etc.
These pollutants interact with biomolecules and alter their functional properties causing disruption in metabolic pathways and genetic expression, degradation of biomolecules imparting genotoxicity and cytotoxicity in aquatic flora. At the same time plants have developed inherent mechanism to combat the adverse effects of these pollutants. Therefore, understanding the plant responses to the emerging aquatic pollutants is the need of the hour and recognizing their mitigation strategies will prove beneficial for the management of aquatic pollution.
Water pollution poses a serious threat to aquatic ecosystems, which directly or indirectly impacts human health and society. In the last few decades, human activities like industrialization, urbanization, and modern agricultural practices have generated an enormous amount of waste, which ended in aquatic ecosystems causing critical and non-restorable damage to all life forms. Aquatic plants ranging from phytoplankton to macroscopic types, and belonging to lower groups like algae and bryophyte to angiosperm are all exposed to the deleterious effects of these emerging pollutants (EPs). Some of these plants have quite obviously developed the mechanism to combat the adversities and cope with the challenges imposed by the water pollutants.
In this regard, understanding the plant mechanisms facilitating the avoidance, accumulation, and degradation of these pollutants at the cellular and sub-cellular levels will provide insight into the tolerant species that can be selectively used for the detoxification of EPs in the aquatic ecosystem. Moreover, some species can be used as biological indicators for several pollutants and the identification of biomarkers in this regard will fasten up the real-time analysis of the status of EPs in the aquatic ecosystem.
The authors are requested to contribute to the aspects of the general mechanism of aquatic plants elucidating the plant responses against diverse EPs and the strategies for the detoxification of these pollutants in the aquatic ecosystem. In this purview, the contribution from authors is requested on the enlisted themes, though not exclusive:
- Present status of new emerging pollutants (EPs) in freshwater and marine ecosystem posing serious threats to the aquatic flora
- Responses of the aquatic plants to EPs at the physiological, biochemical, molecular, cellular, and subcellular levels
- Mechanism of plant tolerance to EPs
- Phytoremediation, detoxification, and biotransformation of EPs facilitated by aquatic plants
- OMICS strategies for the identification of biomarkers of EPs contamination in the aquatic ecosystem
- Recent advances in tracing the EPs in the aquatic ecosystem and at the whole plant level
Keywords:
plant abiotic stress, water pollutants, climate change, freshwater, aquatic ecosystem, omics technologies
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.