Soil-Plant-Microbiome Functionality and Adaptation to Anthropogenic Stress and Climate Change

The soil-plant-microbiome system forms the foundation of terrestrial productivity and plays a central role in sustaining ecosystem services essential for human life. However, this system is increasingly threatened by the combined pressures of climate change and intensive anthropogenic activities. Extreme rainfall events, drought periods, soil degradation, and contamination disrupt soil structure, nutrient availability, and microbial functioning, ultimately reducing plant performance and compromising ecosystem resilience. Understanding how soils, plants, and their associated microbiomes respond and adapt to these stressors is therefore crucial for developing sustainable management strategies.

Recent advances in soil chemistry, plant physiology, microbial ecology, and environmental biotechnology have opened new opportunities to design interventions that enhance soil health and improve the stability and functionality of agro-ecosystems. Innovative approaches, including organic-based fertilizers, biostimulants, nanofertilizers, growth-promoting microorganisms, biodegradable bioplastics, and nature-based solutions, show great potential to strengthen soil resilience, support plant adaptation, and promote climate-smart agricultural practices. At the same time, integrating circular-economy principles, such as valorizing agricultural biomass, into soil management can help close nutrient loops, reduce pollution, and preserve the long-term ecological value of agricultural soils.

This Research Topic aims to bring together interdisciplinary studies that advance our understanding of soil-plant-microbiome interactions under climate and human-induced stress. We welcome studies that investigate the mechanisms governing soil quality, plant responses, and microbial functionality across laboratory, greenhouse, and field conditions, as well as contributions addressing long-term management, regenerative practices, carbon sequestration, and nature-based solutions.

By encouraging participation from early-career researchers, this Research Topic aims to promote innovative strategies for sustaining soil fertility, enhancing ecosystem resilience, and supporting sustainable agricultural production in a changing world.

In this Research Topic, we welcome studies on the following subtopics, but not limited to:
• Soil resistance and resilience to climate changes
• Long-term soil management based on the circular economy principles
• Soil biodiversity and soil health
• Nature-based solutions for the promotion of the soil-plant system
• Interdisciplinary studies of the soil-plant-microbiome system under stressed condition
• Laboratory scale studies of the biochemical processes regulating the soil-plant system under different climatic or management conditions
• Field scale studies on regenerative agricultural practices
• Soil carbon dynamics and management to increase carbon soil carbon sequestration
• Utilization of organic-based fertilizers, biostimulants, nanofertilizers, growth-promoting microorganisms, and biodegradable bioplastic as alternatives to conventional solutions.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Soil quality, Soil-plant-microbiome, Climate change, Plant adaptation, Agro-ecosystems

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.