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Innovative Management Practices Improving Biodiversity, Soil Parameters and Ecosystem Services of Sites Affected by Human Activities

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sustainability and Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2019) | Viewed by 16942

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Dr. Josef Trögl

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Faculty of Environment, Faculty of Environment, Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem, Czechia
Interests: Bioreporters; biodegradation; bioremediation; soil microbial communities; soil organic matter; soil pollution
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The growing human population brings increased impacts on environment, e.g., pollution, soil degradation, biodiversity loss and other well-known consequences. Therefore, novel management, remediation and reclamation strategies are needed to sustain or recover environmental health and ecosystem services. This Special Issue is focused on reports on their verifications and evaluation with sustainability recommendation. Of special attention are the following topics; however, other relevant topics will also be considered:

Agricultural practices leading to improved soil health, especially increased organic carbon, biomass and activity of soil microorganisms (e.g., no tillage farming, permanent-cover practices, directed irrigation, etc.).
Remediation techniques with positive effect on soil microbial communities and soil ecosystem functions.
Reclamation techniques of brownfields (e.g., industrial areas, post-mining sites, abandoned roads, etc.) leading to improved biodiversity and restoration of nature-like ecosystems.
Comparative management studies (succession vers. reclamation, no-tillage vers. standard agriculture, etc.).
Management strategies preventing status-quo of natural ecosystems against human-induced development (e.g., fighting invasive species, protecting habitats of endangered species, etc.).
Evaluation of implementation of related relevant strategies (e.g., European biodiversity strategy).

To limit the scope, only submissions including “real” environmental part will be considered (e.g., no artificially damaged localities, no laboratory microcosms, no artificially contaminated soils, etc.).

Papers selected for this Special Issue are subject to a rigorous peer-review procedure with the aim of rapid and wide dissemination of research results, developments and applications.

Prof. Dr. Josef Trögl
Guest Editor

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.

Keywords

Sustainable management
Contaminated sites
Industrial brownfields
Post-mining sites
Soil microbial community
Biodiversity
Ecosystem services

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 3493 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Influence of Stone Bunds on Vegetation and Soil in an Area Reforested with Pinus engelmannii Carr. in the Forests of Durango, Mexico

by Ma. del Carmen Ponce-Rodríguez, José Ángel Prieto-Ruíz, Francisco Oscar Carrete-Carreón, María Elena Pérez-López, José de Jesús Muñoz-Ramos, Osvaldo Reyes-Estrada and Héctor Ramírez-Garduño

Sustainability 2019, 11(18), 5033; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11185033 - 14 Sep 2019

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 4363

Abstract

The forest ecosystems of Mexico experience soil degradation mainly due to water erosion, which causes low vegetation regeneration. One of the strategies to diminish soil loss is through the construction of stone bunds (SB)—hand-made structures to trap sediment and store water for longer periods. However, little is known about their effects on pine establishment. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the effect of SB on the survival and growth of individual P. engelmannii Carr. specimens with respect to the distance of their planted. The study additionally sought to analyse how SB would affect changes in the production of aerial phytomass, herbaceous vegetation cover and soil characteristics in a reforested area of Durango State in north-central Mexico. Three treatments were evaluated by planting pine trees at three distances with respect to the SB: 80 cm upslope bund (UB), 80 cm downslope bund (DB) and between upper and lower bunds (BB). The variables analysed were the following: The survival and growth of reforestation, aerial coverage and the production of herbaceous plants, and the physicochemical characteristics of the soil. Survival showed significant differences (p < 0.05) among treatments, UB (80%), DB (27%) and BB (30%). The production of aerial phytomass did not show significant differences between treatments UB (1651 kg ha⁻¹) and DB (1058 kg ha⁻¹), although these two were different (p < 0.05) to BB (600 kg ha⁻¹). On the other hand, the vegetation cover and soil characteristics did not show statistical differences. These results highlight the importance of the effect of SB on the survival of P. engelmannii Carr. and the growth of herbaceous vegetation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Management Practices Improving Biodiversity, Soil Parameters and Ecosystem Services of Sites Affected by Human Activities)

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14 pages, 1649 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Soil Microbial Communities and Enzyme Activities after Long-Term Application of Inorganic and Organic Fertilizers at Different Depths of the Soil Profile

by Ladislav Holík, Lukáš Hlisnikovský, Roman Honzík, Josef Trögl, Hana Burdová and Jan Popelka

Sustainability 2019, 11(12), 3251; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11123251 - 12 Jun 2019

Cited by 33 | Viewed by 4205

Abstract

Fertilization is a key factor for sustaining productivity in agroecosystems. A long-term experiment in cambisol following periodical application of several types of fertilization has been running at the experimental site since 1954. In this study, we determined the impact of applied inorganic and/or organic fertilizers on the activity of soil enzymes and on the structure of microorganisms at depths of 0–30 cm and 30–60 cm. Single-factor comparison showed that use of inorganic and/or organic fertilizer had an insignificant effect on the activities of soil enzymes (at depths 0–30 cm and 30–60 cm) and also on the structure of microbial communities at both depths studied. Only soil respirations exhibited stimulation by combined fertilization. The results, irrespective of sampling depth (0–60 cm), showed that application of combined organic and inorganic fertilization stimulated the activity of glucosidases and use of inorganic fertilizer inhibited the activity of arylsulphatases. Respirations were stimulated by application of organic fertilizer and combined fertilization. Nevertheless, principal component analyses, which calculate with multidimensional data, revealed differences in samples treated by sole mineral fertilizer compared to other variants, especially in the lower layer. In general, our results indicate that use of combined fertilization may improve biological characteristics in deeper parts of soil profile and possibly increase biological activity in agroecosystems. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Management Practices Improving Biodiversity, Soil Parameters and Ecosystem Services of Sites Affected by Human Activities)

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16 pages, 3598 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Effects of Vegetation Restoration on Soil Bacterial Communities, Enzyme Activities, and Nutrients of Reconstructed Soil in a Mining Area on the Loess Plateau, China

by Pengfei Li, Xingchang Zhang, Mingde Hao, Yongxing Cui, Shilei Zhu and Yanjiang Zhang

Sustainability 2019, 11(8), 2295; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11082295 - 17 Apr 2019

Cited by 28 | Viewed by 4295

Abstract

Soil microbes are the main driving forces and influencing factors of biochemical reactions in the environment. Study of ecological recovery after mining activities has prompted wider recognition of the importance of microbial diversity to ecosystem recovery; however, the response of soil bacterial communities to vegetation restoration types and soil biochemical properties remains poorly understood. The purpose of this research was to explore the soil bacterial communities and soil biochemical properties at four sampling sites (brushland (BL), forestland (FL), grassland (GL) and unreclaimed land (UL)) on the Loess Plateau, China, to evaluate the effect of vegetation restoration on the reconstructed soil in mining areas. In August 2017, samples were collected at the Heidaigou coal mine dumps. Illumina MiSeq sequencing was used to identify the structure of the soil bacterial community and evaluate its relationships with soil biochemical properties. The results showed that soil biochemical properties (soil organic matter, available phosphorus, urease, sucrase, microbial biomass carbon and microbial biomass nitrogen) were significantly increased in BL, FL and GL relative to UL, indicating that the soil quality was significantly improved by vegetation restoration. In addition, the results showed that the vegetation restoration on the reconstructed soil in the mining area could significantly improve the operational taxonomic units (OTUs), abundance (ACE and Chao1) and diversity (Shannon and Simpson) indices of bacterial community and the dominant phyla were Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria and Acidobacteria. With vegetation restoration, the relative abundance of Proteobacteria and Acidobacteria showed an increasing trend, while that of Actinobacteria showed a decreasing trend, and the dominant phyla were only significantly correlated with a few biochemical properties. Moreover, there were no changes in soil bacterial community structures across the four sampling sites and the response of the bacterial community to biochemical properties was not obvious. This implies that, although the region has experienced about 20 years of vegetation restoration, the microbial community still maintains good stability and lagging response to soil biochemical properties. Since the BL soil had better biochemical properties and higher bacterial richness and diversity, it was recommended as the optimum vegetation restoration type for soil reclamation in this area. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Management Practices Improving Biodiversity, Soil Parameters and Ecosystem Services of Sites Affected by Human Activities)

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12 pages, 1676 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceCommunication

Effect of Growing Miscanthus x giganteus on Soil Microbial Communities in Post-Military Soil

by Diana Nebeská, Josef Trögl, Valentina Pidlisnyuk, Jan Popelka, Petra Veronesi Dáňová, Sergej Usťak and Roman Honzík

Sustainability 2018, 10(11), 4021; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10114021 - 02 Nov 2018

Cited by 19 | Viewed by 3531

Abstract

Growing a second generation energetic plant Miscanthus x giganteus (Mxg) in former military sites appears to be a promising way to use such areas with synergic phytoremediation of contaminants (organic pollutants, potential toxic metals). Effect of Mxg growth on soil microbial communities during a two-year pot experiment with real post-military soil (Sliač, Slovakia) and the effect of potential toxic metal concentration was studied by analyses of microbial activities and phospholipid fatty acids (PLFA). Year-on-year positive changes in microbial community structure and state were detected (higher ratios of G+/G− bacteria and fungal/bacterial PLFA, and a decrease of stress indicators trans/cis and cy/pre PLFA). Portion of gram-positive bacteria correlated negatively with potential toxic metal concentrations; however, the concentration of potential toxic metals was not identified as the main stress factor—the access to bioavailable nutrients was more important. Overall, Mxg growth generally exhibited a positive effect on soil microorganisms. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Management Practices Improving Biodiversity, Soil Parameters and Ecosystem Services of Sites Affected by Human Activities)

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