As the global population continues to grow, projected to reach an estimated 9.8 billion people by 2050, the demand for food is expected to rise substantially. Consequently, agricultural production will likely need to double to meet this increasing demand. However, climate change has significant impacts on crop production worldwide, exacerbating food insecurity, hunger, and poverty through severe biotic and abiotic stresses. These challenges disproportionately affect vulnerable communities, particularly in developing countries. Climate change-induced fluctuations contribute to the degradation of soil health, compromising ecosystem services and leading to issues such as soil salinity, drought, erosion, sodicity, nutrient deficiency, and other edaphic stresses. These factors negatively influence plant growth and development, often reducing productivity and global food security while also diminishing biodiversity. In particular, soil salinity significantly affects microbial community composition, soil organic carbon content, greenhouse gas emissions, and crop yield. It can also lead to desertification, thus highlighting the need for innovative mitigation strategies, as outlined in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Addressing the negative impacts of climate change on soil salinization and degradation is crucial to enhancing soil and plant properties in a synergic way: improving the fertility of sodic soil and plant resilience to salinity. Additionally, exploiting biotechnological approaches, such as the use of microorganisms derived from extremophile conditions such as archaea, microalgae, and halotolerant bacteria, offers a promising option for climate change mitigation in agriculture. Understanding the mechanisms by which extremophile microorganisms alleviate abiotic stresses presents innovative opportunities for enhancing crop resilience. Mitigation approaches, such as the application of soil amendments, cultivation of tolerant genotypes, and plant-halotolerant bacteria interactions can contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation also successfully tackling the soil salinity issue. This Research Topic invites original research articles, short communications, and reviews, about a range of thematic areas, including but not limited to:
- Enhance plant resilience to salinity and drought stress
- Investigation of extremophile microorganisms in mitigating biotic and abiotic stresses
- Investigation of the physiological and biochemical mechanisms of plants' stress tolerance
- Emerging technologies and crop varieties adapted to saline and arid environments
- Soil amendments to improve soil fertility and mitigate the impacts of climate change
Keywords:
Sustainable Agriculture, Climate Change, Soil Fertility, Abiotic Stress, Agroecology, Salt-Tolerant Plants, Halotolerant Microorganisms
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.
As the global population continues to grow, projected to reach an estimated 9.8 billion people by 2050, the demand for food is expected to rise substantially. Consequently, agricultural production will likely need to double to meet this increasing demand. However, climate change has significant impacts on crop production worldwide, exacerbating food insecurity, hunger, and poverty through severe biotic and abiotic stresses. These challenges disproportionately affect vulnerable communities, particularly in developing countries. Climate change-induced fluctuations contribute to the degradation of soil health, compromising ecosystem services and leading to issues such as soil salinity, drought, erosion, sodicity, nutrient deficiency, and other edaphic stresses. These factors negatively influence plant growth and development, often reducing productivity and global food security while also diminishing biodiversity. In particular, soil salinity significantly affects microbial community composition, soil organic carbon content, greenhouse gas emissions, and crop yield. It can also lead to desertification, thus highlighting the need for innovative mitigation strategies, as outlined in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Addressing the negative impacts of climate change on soil salinization and degradation is crucial to enhancing soil and plant properties in a synergic way: improving the fertility of sodic soil and plant resilience to salinity. Additionally, exploiting biotechnological approaches, such as the use of microorganisms derived from extremophile conditions such as archaea, microalgae, and halotolerant bacteria, offers a promising option for climate change mitigation in agriculture. Understanding the mechanisms by which extremophile microorganisms alleviate abiotic stresses presents innovative opportunities for enhancing crop resilience. Mitigation approaches, such as the application of soil amendments, cultivation of tolerant genotypes, and plant-halotolerant bacteria interactions can contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation also successfully tackling the soil salinity issue. This Research Topic invites original research articles, short communications, and reviews, about a range of thematic areas, including but not limited to:
- Enhance plant resilience to salinity and drought stress
- Investigation of extremophile microorganisms in mitigating biotic and abiotic stresses
- Investigation of the physiological and biochemical mechanisms of plants' stress tolerance
- Emerging technologies and crop varieties adapted to saline and arid environments
- Soil amendments to improve soil fertility and mitigate the impacts of climate change
Keywords:
Sustainable Agriculture, Climate Change, Soil Fertility, Abiotic Stress, Agroecology, Salt-Tolerant Plants, Halotolerant Microorganisms
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.