Plant Biology and Ecophysiology for the Environment and Sustainability

Dear Colleagues,

Since the dawn of human civilization, plants have shaped our societies by providing oxygen, food, clothing, shelter, medicines, and key environmental services. However, the world’s rising population, expected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, will challenge food security, resource management, and environmental sustainability, particularly under the predicted scenarios of climate change. Aiming to promote global well-being and sustainability, the United Nations (UN) established several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targeting important societal challenges, including poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice, which should be tackled within the next decade. In this context, the management of ecosystems and food systems worldwide plays a pivotal role, and must focus on improved efficiencies, decreased inputs, and marginal ecological impacts. This drives the need to take advantage of biotechnological tools built on plant biology and ecophysiology for the application of plants toward the environment and sustainability.

This Special Issue aims to deliver ground-breaking approaches and strategies to promote environmental resilience and global sustainability through the exploitation of plant resources, from molecular to ecosystem scales (e.g., genetics, ecophysiology, biochemistry, microbiology, and systems biology). We welcome original research articles, review articles, perspectives, opinions, and methodological articles focusing on the use of plants as a holistic tool to tackle UN’s SDGs. Topics of interest include the contribution of plant biology and ecophysiology to:

1. Feedstock provision and food security (e.g., crop improvement, product quality and valorisation, biofortification);
2. Lower inputs and improved nutrient and water use efficiency (e.g., less demanding plants, precision agriculture, organic and biologic practices, plant/water relations);
3. Soil quality, air quality and environmental remediation (e.g., carbon fixation, biological N-fixation, soil structure and function, phytoremediation);
4. Resilience to pests and diseases (e.g., tolerance traits, ecological control agents, integrated pest management);
5. Climate change adaptation (e.g., resilience to water stress, greenhouse gases, elevated temperatures);
6. Global sustainability (e.g., agrobiodiversity, ecological production systems, support decision tools, shorter value chains).

Dr. Marta Nunes Da Silva
Dr. Carla Sofia Sancho Dos Santos
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• agroecology
• biotechnology
• climate change
• ecophysiology
• environmental resilience
• genetics
• phytoremediation
• plant biology
• plant protection
• sustainability