The Role of Soil Degradation, Soil Health and Management Practices to Keep Soils and Food Chain Cd-Safe

Cadmium is a contaminant that has attracted much attention due to its toxicity, both in agricultural production processes and in terms of food safety. Therefore, it is very important to prevent, to the greatest extent possible, the incorporation of cadmium into the ecosystem, the mobility of cadmium and its accumulation in edible parts of plants. Soil degradation worldwide significantly increases the risk of Cd transfer from ecosystems to the food chain. The most important soil degradation changes in this regard are soil acidification, loss of soil organic matter and depletion of nutrients, primarily available phosphorus. The strategy of keeping the soil and food chain safe in terms of cadmium should be based on research into the amount, form and mobility of cadmium in the ecosystem, soil properties and management practices that can significantly change the mobility of cadmium and physiological processes that affect the uptake and accumulation of cadmium in plant tissues.A very significant challenge is the potential danger of inappropriate implementation of agrotechnical measures aimed at increasing production, while ignoring the possible negative impact on environmental cadmium pollution, e.g. soil acidification due to intensive fertilization with inappropriate mineral fertilizers, increased cadmium content in mineral fertilizers, organic fertilizers and other fertilizer products, neglecting the decline in soil organic matter content. At the same time, we have significant recent achievements at our disposal that we can transfer into production and management practices and systematically increase ecosystem resilience, soil health, and product quality through mindful production. Among the most important are certainly innovations in smart agriculture, from geopositioning of all ecosystem heterogeneities, through modelling and DSS to precise implementation of smartly chosen agrotechnical measures. Equal attention is deserved by innovations in the application of microbiological agents, both in terms of optimizing the use of mineral fertilizers and increasing the fertility, elasticity and health of soils through direct and indirect effects on the mobility of nutrients and harmful substances. Breeding efforts to create new genotypes have always had enormous potential for advancing crop production, and in this respect they are also alongside other innovations. Finally, innovations in instrumental analytics, primarily the increasingly successful detection and quantification of substances in ecosystems, extend horizontally across all areas of ecosystem contamination research. Research in the fields of agriculture and the environment is complemented by food and biotechnological research in modeling, creating and producing safe food.In this Research Topic, we welcome studies on the following subtopics, but not limited to:• geographical and geochemical characteristics of cadmium content and bioavailability in soil• the impact of soil degradation on cadmium bioavailability• agricultural strategies and practices to reduce the input of cadmium into the soil• soil conditioning procedures to reduce Cd bioavailability• fertilization and other agrotechnical procedures towards reduction of Cd uptake by plants• reducing cadmium bioavailability using microbial bioagents• challenges and Cd threats to soil health• management practices to build Cd-safe soils and food• digital technologies, modeling and smart agriculture in the service of reducing the transfer of Cd into the food chain Topic editors: Zdenko Lončarić, Fernando José Cebola Lidon, Márk Rékási Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/74778/the-role-of-soil-degradation-soil-health-and-management-practices-to-keep-soils-and-food-chain-cd-safe