Microbial Innovations for Sustainable Management of Salt-Affected Soils

Salt-affected soils represent a critical challenge for terrestrial ecosystems, covering over a billion hectares worldwide and expanding rapidly under the combined effects of irrigation mismanagement, climate change, and land degradation. Increasingly, salt intrusion due to sea-level rise and coastal flooding is accelerating this expansion, particularly in vulnerable coastal agroecosystems where seawater encroachment alters microbial community assembly, sulfur/carbon cycling, and agricultural resilience. These soils - saline, sodic, and saline-sodic - threaten agricultural productivity, soil carbon storage, and overall ecosystem health, particularly in arid, semi-arid, and coastal zones. Conventional remediation measures, such as chemical amendments, leaching, or mechanical reclamation, are costly and environmentally unsustainable at large scales. Recent research highlights the remarkable potential of soil microorganisms including bacteria, archaea, fungi, and microalgae to mitigate such degradation. The microbial capacity for salt tolerance, nutrient cycling, and structural stabilization positions them as key agents in bioremediation and sustainable soil management. Yet, despite significant advances, there remains an urgent need to elucidate the mechanisms of microbial resilience, interactions with mineral matrices, and ecosystem-level impacts on saline soil functionality.This Research Topic aims to gather and stimulate frontier research that deploys microbial systems to restore and manage salt-affected soils sustainably. The goal is to deepen our understanding of microbial adaptation to osmotic stress, the influence of salinity gradients on community assembly, and the role of microbes in soil structure and biogeochemical cycling. Further, this collection seeks to encourage work that advances bioengineering and biotechnology approaches, such as halotolerant plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR), mycorrhizal inoculants, and synthetic microbial consortia, and their translation from laboratory to field applications. Key questions include how microbial activity can be optimized to enhance plant tolerance, restructure the rhizosphere, and recover nutrient fluxes without undesirable ecological side-effects.This Research Topic will prioritize integrative studies linking microbial diversity, function, and geochemical processes. It welcomes investigations from molecular to ecosystem scales, while excluding unrelated studies that do not address microbial or geomicrobial contributions to saline soil systems. To gather further insights into the sustainable management of salt-affected soils through microbial processes, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:· Microbial community structure and functional diversity across salinity gradients· Impact of seawater encroachment and coastal flooding on microbial community assembly, sulfur/carbon cycling, and agricultural resilience in coastal agroecosystems· Mechanisms of halotolerance, exopolysaccharide production, and biofilm-mediated soil aggregation· Microbe-mineral and ion exchange interactions influencing soil chemistry and structure· Development and field testing of microbial inoculants, consortia, and bioformulations· Microbial roles in biogeochemical cycling (carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorus) in saline, sodic, and salt-intruded soils· Synthetic ecology and metabolic engineering approaches to enhance salt resilience· Microbial contributions to sustainable land restoration and soil health under climate change· Rhizosphere engineering and plant–microbe interactions for enhanced salt tolerance and crop productivity· Role of halophilic microorganisms in producing plant growth promoting traits and their importance in agriculture· Microbial contributions to sustainable land restoration, soil health improvement, and climate-change adaptation in degraded saline landscapes· Long-term ecological impacts and environmental safety of microbial interventions in salt-affected soils Topic editors: Abhishek Walia, Ravi Kant Bhatia, Ramganesh Selvarajan Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/82800/microbial-innovations-for-sustainable-management-of-salt-affected-soils