The Toxicology and Risk Assessment of Agricultural Runoff and Aquaculture Pollution

Dear Colleagues,

Food production needs to increase worldwide to accommodate a growing human population confronted with climate change. One challenge has been to protect freshwater and marine systems from water pollution generated by agriculture and aquaculture.  Contamination of our waterways impacts human and ecosystem health. Pollution includes changes in general water quality parameters as well as specific organic or inorganic contaminants. Pollution also includes microbes such as antibiotic-resistant bacteria transferred to the environment from agriculture and aquaculture.

Agricultural runoff from animal feed lots and farms can carry pesticides, veterinary medicines, particles, and fertilizers, which contaminate surface waters and groundwater. Nutrient waste containing nitrogen and phosphorus can trigger algal blooms, some of which generate toxicants.

Pond aquaculture and open-net pens can contribute to water pollution in the form of nutrient waste produced by the farmed species. In addition, biocides and chemicals used to treat the water in which the fish or shellfish are grown can leach into the environment. In one type of aquaculture, raceways divert flowing water from natural streams in order to raise trout. Each method of aquaculture has different risks to the environment from a pollution standpoint.

We would like to invite authors to submit their original research or review papers on the toxicology and risk assessment of aquaculture pollution and agricultural runoff. Subtopic examples include the occurrence, fate (e.g., transformations, body burden, bioaccumulation, biomagnification), and effects of pollutants from agricultural runoff or aquaculture to the ecosystem and human health; biomarkers of exposure and exposure pathways; probabilistic risk assessment for chemicals entering the environment; and case studies which can include mitigation strategies.

Dr. Linda Schweitzer
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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. Water 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 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.