Novel Bio-based Materials and Microbial Synergy for Pollution Control: Mechanisms, Applications, and One Health Perspectives

With the continuing acceleration of global industrialization and urbanization, heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants, antibiotics, microplastics and other emerging contaminants are increasingly accumulating in terrestrial ecosystems (including agricultural soils, industrial lands, and groundwater interfaces), often as complex contaminant mixtures. These pollutants pose serious threats to soil biodiversity, ecosystem stability, and human health. Conventional remediation technologies are frequently constrained by high costs, risks of secondary pollution and ecological disturbance, underscoring the urgent need for green, efficient and environmentally compatible pollution control technologies and materials.

Bio-based materials, such as biochar, chitosan and cellulose derivatives, have shown great promise in soil and terrestrial environmental remediation because of their environmental compatibility and tunable functionality. Through adsorption, complexation, precipitation and other physicochemical processes, these materials can work in concert with indigenous soil microbial degradation and transformation processes to immobilize heavy metals and remove organic and emerging contaminants. Microorganisms and bio-based materials can form highly effective synergistic systems within the soil matrix and rhizosphere. The regulation of microbial community structure, responses of metabolic pathways and material–microbe interfacial interactions are key determinants of pollution control performance and represent an important frontier at the intersection of soil microbiology and materials science.

The One Health concept emphasizes the interconnectedness of human, animal and environmental health, providing a systematic framework for understanding cross-media contaminant transport, enrichment along ecological chains and the transmission of health risks. Given that terrestrial environments act as major sinks and pathways for contaminants, pollutants circulate across environmental, biological and human interfaces, and their ecological toxicity and health impacts often extend beyond a single ecosystem. Microbial regulation mediated by bio-based materials may help interrupt contaminant transmission pathways at the terrestrial source and reduce cross-domain health risks, thereby aligning with the needs of pollution prevention and control under the One Health framework.

At present, the molecular mechanisms of bio-based material–microbe interactions in solid matrices, strategies for the synergistic remediation of complex contamination, in situ monitoring and early-warning technologies, and risk assessment frameworks from a One Health perspective remain insufficiently explored. This Special Issue focuses on these core questions and aims to bring together frontier advances in terrestrial microbiology, materials science, ecotoxicology and related fields. It seeks to reveal the key mechanisms by which bio-based materials regulate microbial functions, clarify the One Health implications of pollution control processes, and provide theoretical support and technical pathways for the development of efficient, safe and sustainable remediation technologies, ultimately contributing to global ecological protection and public health security.

We welcome Original Research, Review, Mini Review, Methods, Hypothesis and Theory, Perspective, and Opinion articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:

• Interfacial mechanisms by which bio-based materials regulate microbial functions in soil and subsurface environments

• Application technologies for bio-based material–microbe synergy in complex terrestrial contamination scenarios (e.g., bulk soil, rhizosphere, and groundwater)

• Environmental fate of contaminants and ecological risk reduction mediated by bio-based materials

• Integrated health risk assessment and remediation systems under the One Health framework

• In situ monitoring, risk assessment and sustainable application technologies for soil health restoration

Article types and fees

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

• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• 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:

• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Bio-based materials; Microbe-material synergy; Emerging contaminants; One Health; Environmental remediation

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.