The Pollution Caused by Agriculture and Its Mitigation Measures

A special issue of Toxics (ISSN 2305-6304). This special issue belongs to the section "Ecotoxicology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2023) | Viewed by 5279

Special Issue Editors

Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Environmental Engineering, Institute of Environmental Engineering, University of Zielona Góra, 15 Prof. Z. Szafrana St., 65-516 Zielona Góra, Poland
Interests: wastewater treatment; waste treatment; biohydrogen; fermentation; aerobic decomposition of waste; water treatment; greenhouse gases; pollutant emissions; process optimization; renewable energy
Department of Electrical, Power, Electronic and Control Engineering, Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Olsztyn, Poland
Interests: unconventional energy sources; solar energy; recycling and energetic use of biological waste; application of information technology in agriculture

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Agriculture is a major contributor to global climate change. The agricultural sector accounts for about one-fifth of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, including agriculture's role in deforestation. If systemic solutions are not introduced in this area, given the continuous increase in the number of people and the correlated increase in demand for food, agricultural emissions are likely to increase.

We are pleased to invite you to publish an article in a Special Issue on reducing pollution from agriculture to protect the environment and human health.

The 2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report indicates that "rapid and far-reaching" changes are needed to limit the impact of climate change to 1.5 degrees Celsius. For agriculture, however, these changes may be more challenging than for other sectors.

Agriculture has identified far fewer technologies that can significantly reduce emissions compared to other sectors. This may be due to the fact that agriculture is much less consolidated than other sectors and requires a holistic approach combining climate goals with others, such as food security, soil protection against pollution (such as heavy metals, arsenic, selenium, fluorine (PAH), organochlorine compounds, dioxins, polychlorinated compounds, biphenyls (PCBs), pesticides and emerging contaminants: antibiotics, hormones or microplastics) or biodiversity, and the livelihoods of farmers and farming communities.

This Special Issue invites articles on technological solutions appropriate to local conditions aimed at reducing emissions from agriculture and protecting land and crops from pollution as well as on innovative solutions that fit into the policy of a circular economy.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Monika Suchowska-Kisielewicz
Dr. Piotr Sołowiej
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. Toxics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2600 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.

Keywords

  • agriculture emission reduction

  • innovation
  • fertilization
  • manure management
  • anaerobic digestion
  • composting
  • novel technology
  • ghg emission
  • climate change
  • circular economy
  • soil protection
  • emerging contaminants

Published Papers (3 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Jump to: Other

19 pages, 2757 KiB  
Article
Chemical Survey and Risk Assessment of 56 Pesticides in the Sado River Estuary (Iberian Peninsula, Portugal)
by Maria João Rocha and Eduardo Rocha
Toxics 2023, 11(5), 457; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/toxics11050457 - 14 May 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1360
Abstract
The Sado basin (~8000 km2) is an area where intensive agriculture occurs. However, this region still has few data about the water levels of priority pesticides such as fungicides, herbicides, and insecticides. Therefore, water samples were collected every two months at [...] Read more.
The Sado basin (~8000 km2) is an area where intensive agriculture occurs. However, this region still has few data about the water levels of priority pesticides such as fungicides, herbicides, and insecticides. Therefore, water samples were collected every two months at nine sites along the Sado River Estuary and analyzed by GC-MS/MS to determine the influx of pesticides in that ecosystem. More than 87% of the pesticides were quantified, and 42% and 72% were above the maximum totals established by the European Directives 98/83/EC and 2013/39/EU, respectively. Fungicides (91%), herbicides (87%), and insecticides (85%) attained average annual amounts of ≈3.2 µg/L, ≈1.0 µg/L, and ≈12.8 µg/L, respectively. A mathematical approach was used to evaluate the hazard of the pesticide mixture at the maximum concentrations found in this area. The assessment identified invertebrates as the most at-risk trophic level and identified two chemicals (chlorpyriphos and cyfluthrin) as the primary culprits. This assumption was supported by acute in vivo assays using Daphnia magna. These observations, and the high concentrations of phosphates, indicate that the status of the Sado waters poses environmental and potential human health risks. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Pollution Caused by Agriculture and Its Mitigation Measures)
Show Figures

Figure 1

18 pages, 620 KiB  
Article
Sustainable Innovation through Developing Hybrid Agri-Food Supply Chains: A Case in South-Eastern Spain
by Irene Navarro-del Aguila and Jerónimo de Burgos-Jiménez
Toxics 2022, 10(12), 752; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/toxics10120752 - 02 Dec 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1890
Abstract
We analyze the incipient development of short supply chains for fresh fruit and vegetables from conventional agri-food chains, leading to the emergence of hybrid chains. We have sought to answer the research question of how and why hybrid food supply chains has been [...] Read more.
We analyze the incipient development of short supply chains for fresh fruit and vegetables from conventional agri-food chains, leading to the emergence of hybrid chains. We have sought to answer the research question of how and why hybrid food supply chains has been initiated by studying this phenomenon in south-eastern Spain. We analyzed the 20 main Spanish fruit and vegetable exporters, identifying the 9 that have developed short channels. Subsequently, we conducted a case study of the one considered most relevant, identifying the stages of this short chain, analyzing the tasks to be performed in the different phases of the SCS, studying which are common to both and where the differences in the processes arise. The results show the synergies that make them coexist successfully, such as the sharing of personnel, infrastructures and services, complementarity in the product range, thus avoiding food waste, or knowledge of consumer tastes and needs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Pollution Caused by Agriculture and Its Mitigation Measures)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Other

Jump to: Research

17 pages, 3626 KiB  
Concept Paper
Biological and Physiological Responses of Root-knot Disease Development on Five Cucurbits Exposed to Different Concentrations of Sulfur Dioxide
by Tanveer Fatima Rizvi and Mujeebur Rahman Khan
Toxics 2023, 11(4), 334; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/toxics11040334 - 31 Mar 2023
Viewed by 1213
Abstract
A study was undertaken in order to investigate the effects of SO2 (25, 50, and 75 ppb) exposure for five hours on alternate days for three months on the susceptibility of five cucurbits to the infection of Meloidogyne incognita, causing root-knot [...] Read more.
A study was undertaken in order to investigate the effects of SO2 (25, 50, and 75 ppb) exposure for five hours on alternate days for three months on the susceptibility of five cucurbits to the infection of Meloidogyne incognita, causing root-knot disease. Four-week-old cucurbit plants were inoculated with 2000 J2 of M. incognita. SO2 levels of 50 and 75 ppb caused noticeable injury to foliage and reduced the plant growth parameters and biomass production of cucurbits (p ≤ 0.05). Nematode-inoculated plants caused characteristic oval, fleshy and large galls. The galls were formed closely, and as a result they coalesced, giving bead-like impressions especially in pumpkin and sponge gourds. Disease severity became aggravated on plants exposed to SO2 at 50 or 75 ppb concentrations. The nematode and SO2 interaction varied with the levels of SO2 and the response of the plant to M. incognita. SO2 at 50 or 75 ppb concentrations stimulated the pathogenesis of M. incognita on cucurbit species. The combined effect of 75 ppb SO2 and M. incognita suppressed plant length by 34% against the sum of decreases observed by M. incognita and SO2 individually (14–18%). At 50 ppb SO2, the fecundity of M. incognita was decreased and combined effect of SO2 and M. incognita was more than the sum of their singular effects. The study has proven that root-knot disease might become aggravated in the regions contaminated with elevated levels of SO2. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Pollution Caused by Agriculture and Its Mitigation Measures)
Show Figures

Graphical abstract

Back to TopTop