Search

Human health may depend on the environment and its compartments, which may include climatic factors. These climatic factors and their changes might impact on human health particularly the outbreak of pandemics like COVID-19. The combined stress resulted from climate changes and COVID-19 could be noticed in several countries especially in the developing countries. Malnutrition is considered one of the most important problems in the developing countries in particular under the droughts, flooding, and other climatic events. Malnutrition was aggravated under COVID-19 outbreak in these countries due to the closure of border between countries, the crisis of global trade, and the global food insecurity. The biofortification process is the sustainable solution to overcome malnutrition, which included very recently using nano-nutrients as called nano-biofortification. The approach of nano-biofortification is a promising tool in producing biofortified edible plants, otherwise this tool still needs more studies to answer the open questions like which nano-nutrients can be used in nano-biofortification? Which recommended doses and crops are considered suitable candidates?

Under the global water crisis, utilizing low-quality water sources in agriculture for irrigation has offered an effective solution to address the shortage of water. Using an excess of low-quality water sources may cause serious risks to the environment, which threaten crop safety and human health. Three kinds of irrigation water (0.413, 1.44, and 2.84 dS m−1) were selected under foliar-applied bio-nanofertilizers of selenium (100 mg L−1) and copper (100 mg L−1) in individual and/or combined application. The nanofertilizers were tested on the production of tomato under greenhouse. After harvesting, the quality of tomato yield and soil biology was evaluated. Using saline water for irrigation caused many main features in this study such as increasing the accumulation of salts, soil organic matter, and CaCO3 in soil by 84.6, 32.3, and 18.4%, respectively, compared to control. The highest tomato yield (2.07 kg plant−1) and soluble solids content (9.24%) were recorded after irrigation with low water quality (2.84 dS m−1) and nano-Cu fertilization. The plant enzymatic antioxidants and soil biological activity were decreased in general due to the salinity stress of irrigation water. After 30 days from transplanting, all studied soil biological parameters (soil microbial counts and enzymes) were higher than the same parameters at harvesting (80 days) under different categories of water quality. The values of all soil biological parameters were decreased by increasing water salinity. This study was carried out to answer the question of whether the combined nanofertilizers of selenium and copper can promote tomato production under saline water irrigation. Further investigations are still needed concerning different applied doses of these nanofertilizers.

Soil is an important source of resources required for human health and well-being. Soil is also a major environmental reservoir of pathogenic organisms. This may include viruses like the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), which through 2020 and 2021 created dramatic catastrophes worldwide as the causative agent of the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19). So, soil has both positive and negative impacts on human health. One of the major positive impacts is the transfer of nutrients from soil to plants, and from there to humans through their diet. Biofortification is able to enhance the levels of nutrients essential to human health in the crops we consume and represents a sustainable solution to address malnutrition, which in turn may strengthen the human immune system against COVID-19. This nutrient transfer works better when we have healthy soils. Therefore, soils and biofortification have important roles to play in combatting the COVID-19 pandemic. However, several questions still remain, such as what are the expected environmental impacts of COVID-19 on soil? Can SARS-CoV-2 be transmitted through soil, and under what conditions? Which soil processes and properties influence SARS-CoV-2 survival rates and times, as well as transmission? What are the specific links between soil health and COVID-19? What are the projected soil management scenarios in response to COVID-19? Questions such as these deserve more attention as the world seeks to recover from its most recent pandemic.

Greenhouse experiments were conducted to evaluate the utilization of compost derived from grape fruit waste (GFW) as an ingredient in nursery substrates for germination and development of c...

Wheat is a strategic crop in Egypt because of its association with the bread system in Egypt. The present study was carried in Faculty of Agriculture Farm, Kafrelsheikh University in two growing winter seasons 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 to evaluate the change of planting methods of wheat crop and its effect on yield, some water relations and economic feasibility from production and water unit at North Nile Delta of Egypt. The design of experiment was complete design blocks with 3 replicates and the treatments were: T1 = flat broadcasting (traditional sowing), T2 = row broadcasting and T3 = raised bed broadcasting. The main results in this study can be summarized as follows:* Change planting methods to raised bed broadcasting raise the straw and grain yields compared to traditional method (flat broadcasting) or row broadcasting. The deference between means was highly significant in straw and grain yields of wheat but non-significant in 1000 grain weight and plant height.* Water applied was reduced by change traditional planting method to row broadcasting or raised bed broadcasting and save about 14 and 20.5% of water applied, respectively.* Crop water use efficiency and irrigation water productivity were increased by changing planting method from flat broadcasting to row broadcasting or raised bed broadcasting.* The highest values of net return and economic feasibility from water unit was achieved for wheat crop by using raised bed broadcasting. *Under the status of this study, could be recommend to plant wheat broadcasting on raised bed or rows alternative flat broadcasting as well as highest yields and highest efficiencies of applied irrigation water. Irrigation water was saved by more than 20% compared with flat broadcasting.

The human activities may include the agricultural, industrial and other activities. The agricultural sector is considered the main source for our life’s supplies. Thus,the agriculturalactivities or practices might result many pollutants such as applied mineral fertilizers, pesticides, effluents from domestic and industrial sewages and vehicular emissions.Therefore, a remediation to remove or decrease the pollutants in soil and water is needed for the environmental protection. This remediation has several classic strategies several years ago, but a promising and new approaches have been established particularly nano-remediation. This nano-remediation depends on the applied nanomaterials in removing pollutants from soils and water through nano-bioremediation and nano-phytoremediation. The most important nanomaterials that have the potential in removing pollutants from contaminated soils and water nano-silica, nano-zero-valent of iron, nano-sized ironsulfide particles, nano-ZnO and others. However, many challenges or open questions are still needing a justification because using of nanomaterials in higher concentrations are considered toxic to plants and agro-environment. Are these nanomaterials stable under environmental conditions or will be converted into toxic ones or still need to be identified for sustainablenano-remediation? Is there any possibility to enter the nanomaterials or other toxic compounds the food chain through these plants? Therefore, a lot of further questions and further research are needed concerning the nano-remediation in removal the agro-pollutants.

Agricultural wastes are considered residues resulted from the agricultural production and after harvesting fruit and vegetable and their processing, agro-industrial by/co-products from the grapes, banana, olives and milk processing. These wastes may represent a treasure when they are turning into valuable applications (i.e., composting, biochar, removing pollutants from the environment and organic fertilizers) or they may burn in open fields causing some environmental problems such as soil degradation and air pollution. The landfill disposal and open dumping of agro-wastes is a common practice in the developing countries generating huge amounts of ash, which may create serious health and environmental problems, primarily due to pollution of groundwater. Under the umbrella of the bioeconomy and based on industrial innovation and high technology, new and better approaches for the recovery of agricultural wastes have been developed. This has contributed to guaranteeing sustainable production and its consumption, resource efficiency, the conversation of these wastes into valuable products and the reduction of negative environmental impacts. The common management of Agro-wastes may include a lot of suggested uses such as production of biosynthesis of nanoparticles, biotechnological products, composting and biofuel production. A lot of bioactive compounds could be produced from the agro-wastes, which have many application possibilities such as functional food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic approaches. The nano-management of agro-wastes may include using of nanotechnology to convert the agro-wastes into a valuable product. This topic still has several open questions particularly under the sustainable and bioeconomy.

THE INTEGRATED application of different fertilizers including nano-fertilizers is a major area of interest within the modern agriculture. A field experiment was carried out aiming to investigate the effects of different types of fertilizers on growth development and productivity of red cabbage and broccoli under salinity and waterlogging stresses. The applied fertilizers included mineral fertilizer (i.e., recommended NPK fertilizers), organic fertilizer (i.e., compost tea) and nano-fertilizers (i.e., copper nanoparticles as nano-Cu) and selenium nanoparticles as nano-Se). The results verified that the vegetative growth of red cabbage and broccoli may depend on the kind of fertilizer. The recent results showed that treatments of nano-Se, nano-Cu and compost tea enhanced the plant growth, tolerance of plants to insects and induced the productivity. Our results revealed that integration of nano-fertilizers with organic fertilizers (compost tea) might be promising tool in modern and non-conventional agriculture. However, more investigations are still needed to clarify the effectiveness of these nanoparticles as well as the possible risks of using these nanomaterials if any.

Many global problems threaten our life on the Planet including climate changes, environmental pollution, food and soil security, energy crisis, etc. This environmental pollution has not only mainly serious risks and stress involving the human health and the entire ecosystem safety but also the quantity and quality of crop productivity worldwide. Due to the great gap between the global food production and the global consumption, there is a crucial need to cultivate these contaminated lands sooner or later. Therefore, the removing of pollutants from soils and waters should be performed in frame of sustainable remediation and sustainable energy production. Depending on many factors (source and kind of pollutants, land use and the economics of water and soil resources, etc) many strategies should be addressed for the sustainable and integrated management of polluted lands. Nanoremediation is a promising strategy in controlling pollution and management. Three major applications of nanoremediation could be characterized including detection of pollution using nanosensors, prevention of pollution, purification and remediation of contamination. Further studies also concerning the impact of changing climate on the nanoremediation process in the agroecosystems should be considered. Thus, this review will focus on the evaluation of environmental nanoremediation and its strategy in polluted lands under climate changes. Using of nanotechnology in pollution control as well as the environmental pollution and its sustainable management also will be highlighted.

Boron (B) toxicity might be a problem, especially in dry regions of the world, however; its distribution still largely unappreciated and ignored by soil and crop scientists. Therefore, this study aimed to assess B spatial distribution in an area of northern Nile Delta, the most fertile and populated area in Egypt. Soil B was extracted by Mehilch-3 extraction and measured by inductively coupled plasma spectrometry (ICP). The mean B concentration was recorded as 5.19, 6.04, and 6.41 ug/g in surface (S), subsurface (Ss), and lower (L) layers, respectively. . The data were interpolated in ArcGIS software. The highest B concentration was observed in the central part of this area, which may be attributed to many reasons such as pollution sources and management practices. Our results indicated that more than 50% of the studied area highly concentrated in B, which represents a threat to soil and ecosystems in North Nile Delta.

The pollution of agricultural soils, water and plants by trace elements (TEs) in the Nile Delta Region, Egypt, is of great importance. This study aimed to investigate the spatial and seasonal variation of some TEs in the agricultural area adjacent to Kitchener Drain and to evaluate the ecological risk posed by these elements using six indices. Soil and plant samples were collected from seven sites close to the drain, while water samples were collected from the corresponding sites inside the drain during three seasons (winter, spring and fall). The results showed that all studied TEs in the soil varied seasonally and spatially among the locations around the drain. Most of the studied elements in the soil were higher in the southern and middle area around the drain. All studied elements in the soil were also higher in the winter than other seasons. Nickel and lead were almost non-detected during all seasons in plant tissues, while other elements were higher in the winter than other seasons. In contrast to the soil and plant tissues, water samples demonstrated lower or non-detected levels of TEs. The results also indicated that the values for the risk assessment indices differed among the studied TEs. Therefore, there is a risk of increasing the concentration of some metals in the study area due to anthropogenic pollution from the adjacent polluted drain through irrigation with contaminated water and spreading of contaminated dredged materials on agricultural fields.

The maize (Zea mays, L.) was grown on a clay soil at Irrigation Development Area of Alwezaria, Kafrelshiekh, Egypt, during 2012 and 2013 seasons, to study the effect of irrigation regimes during different growth stages on growth, grain yield and water relations. Irrigation was applied at 50% (high level, H) and 65% (low level, L) depletion of available soil moisture (DAM) during different growth stages [vegetative stage (S1) from the third leaf (V3) to onset tasseling (VT) stages, reproductive stage I (S2) from VT to mid-milk (R3) stages, reproductive stage II (S3) from mid R3 to physiological maturity (R6)]. IHHH treatment (Irrigated at 50% DAM during three growth stages) or IHHL (Irrigated with 65% DAM at S3 stage only and 50% DAM was used during S1 and S2 growth stages), ILHH (Irrigated with 65% DAM at S1 growth stage only and 50% DAM was observed during S2 and S3 growth stages) and ILHL (Irrigated with 50% DAM at S2 growth stage only and 65% DAM was observed during S1 and S3 growth stages) resulted in significant increase in leaf area index (LAI) and dry weight/plant at 99 days after sowing (DAS), crop growth rate (CGR) at the period of 81-99 DAS, ear length, ear diameter, kernels number/ear, grain weight/ear, 100-grain weight and grain yield compared with ILLL (Irrigated with 65% DAM during three growth stages ) in the two seasons. There were no significant differences in grain yield among the irrigation treatments IHHH, IHHL, ILHH and ILHL in the mentioned traits in both seasons. Abundance soil moisture in root zone during S2 stage (containing tasseling, silking, blister and mid-milk stages) is necessary to achieve high grain yield equal to that during entire season. IHHH treatment recorded the highest values of applied water (7286 and 7321m3/ha), while ILLL recorded the lowest values 6171 and 6198 m3/ha in the two seasons. Although, the treatments received irrigation at 50% DAM during S2 stage (IHHL, ILHH and ILHL treatments) were equivalent to those received irrigation at 50% DAM during entire seasons (IHHH treatment), they were lower in amount of applied irrigation water and water consumptive use. They saved at least 11.3, 16.0 and 19.9% applied water parallel with the yield decrease at the most 3.1, 3.2 and 5.3% than IHHH treatment, respectively. Also, they increased the productivity of applied water (WPwater applied) and water consumptive use (WP WCU) (kg grain/m3 water) compared with IHHH in both seasons. At North Delta, Penman Monteith equation can be used in determining the actual consumptive use and the average of crop Coefficient (Kc) for the two seasons was found to be 0.43, 0.54, 0.64, 0.58 and 0.51 during emergence, vegetative, tasseling to milk, milk to dent and dent to maturity stages, respectively. Therefore, when irrigation water becomes a limited factor for agriculture, we can apply ILHL treatment which resulted in high grain yield and water productivity equal to IHHH with less amount of applied irrigation water and consumptive use in Kafrelshiekh Governorate.

The global agriculture is facing many challenges including sustainable use and conservation of natural resources, climate change, urbanization, and pollution resulting from agrochemicals (e.g., fertilizers and pesticides). So, the sustainable agriculture is an urgent issue and hence the suitable agro-technological interventions are essential (e.g., nano- and bio-technology) for ensuring the safety and sustainability of relevant production system. Biotechnology and nanotechnology also can be considered emerging solutions to resolve the global food crisis. Nanoparticles or nanomaterials can be used in delivering different nutrients for plant growth. These nanoparticles as nanofertilizers have positive and negative effects on soils, soil-biota and plants. These effects mainly depend on multiple factors including nanofertilizer properties, plant species, soil fate and dynamics as well as soil microbial communities. Nanofertilizers could improve the nutrient use efficiencies through releasing of nutrients slowly and steadily for more than 30 days as well as reducing the loss of nutrients in agroecosystems and sustaining farm productivity. Here we review the plant nano-nutrition including the response of plants and soils to nanonutrients and their fate, dynamic, bioavailability, phytotoxicity, etc. Concerning the effects of nanonutrients on terrestrial environments are still an ongoing processes and it demands further researches as well as a knowledge gap towards different changes in shape, texture, color, taste and nutritional aspects on nanonutrients exposed plants as a major component in the food chain. Moreover, the interaction between nanonutrients and plants, soils, soil biota and the entire agroecosystem will be also highlighted.

This study aimed to elucidate the origin of the widespread nicotine contamination of plant-derived commodities, by conducting field experiments with various herbs and spice plants. By scattering tobacco and cigarette butts on the field and subsequent nicotine analyses of the acceptor plants, we verified that the alkaloid is leached out into the soil and is taken up by the crop plants. This path of contamination pertains even when there is only one cigarette butt per square meter. Even such minor pollution results - at least in the case of basil and peppermint - in considerable high nicotine contaminations, which exceed the maximum residue level by more than 20-fold. The data reported here clearly outline the large practical relevance of this soil-borne contamination path and imply that unthoughtful disposal of cigarette butts in the field by farm workers may be the reason for the widespread occurrence of nicotine contamination in plant-derived commodities. Therefore, such misbehavior needs to be prevented using education and sensitization, and by including this issue into the guidelines of good agricultural practice.

Selenium (Se) is a naturally occurring metalloid element which occurs nearly in all environments. Se is considered as a finite and non-renewable resource on the Earth. The common sources of Se in earth’s crust occur in association with sulfide minerals such as metal selenide, whereas it is rarely found in elemental form (Se0). While there is no evidence of Se need for higher plants, several reports show that when Se added at low concentrations, Se exerts beneficial effects on plant growth. Se may act as quasi-essential micronutrient through altering different physiological and biochemical traits. Thus, plants vary considerably in their physiological and biochemical response to Se. This review focusses on the physiological importance of Se forms as well as different Se fertilizers for higher plants, especially plant growth, uptake, transport, and metabolism.

At very low concentrations selenium is an essential micronutrient for humans, animals and some lower plants including algae and bacteria, whereas Se is extremely toxic at higher doses. Living organisms can be exposed to high selenium concentrations from both natural and anthropogenic sources. Climate is a major factor governing the biogeochemistry of Se. Climate change can indeed modify Se uptake by plants and the rhizosphere and the volatilization of Se by plants. High precipitation rates and low temperatures can reduce Se accumulation by plants. Se-hyperaccumulator plants such as giant reed thus appear as a means to regulate Se flow in ecosystems. Se-hyperaccumulator plants can indeed be used to clean Se-contaminated agricultural soils and wastewaters and as a source of dietary Se. Those plants are also converting mineral soil Se into volatile organic Se that is released in the atmosphere.

Background Hepatic fibrosis and cirrhosis develop progressively in extrahepatic biliary atresia (EHBA) despite timely surgical intervention. Purpose The aim of the study was to define CD4 + helper T lymphocytes, cytotoxic CD8 + T lymphocytes, and CD68 + (macrophages) infiltration of portal tracts and lobules and hepatic fibrosis as possible predictive measures of outcome of infants having EHBA. Methods The outcome of 32 infants with EHBA was correlated to their percutaneous biopsy and postportoenterostomy core liver tissue infiltration by CD4 + , CD68 + , and CD8 + cells and to the degree of detected fibrosis. Results Portoenterostomy cores were heavily infiltrated by CD4 + , CD8 + , and CD68 + , compared with the preoperative liver biopsy ( P = .008, .004, and .017, respectively). Infants having favorable outcome had more macrophage infiltration in portoenterostomy core compared with those having an unfavorable outcome (25.66 ± 29.77 per HPF compared with 11.62 ± 4.58, P = .000). Mean CD4 + /CD8 + ratio was 1.54 ± 1.37 in those who died within 18 months postoperatively and 0.733 ± 0.48 in others ( P = .021). Conclusion Immune-mediated destruction of portal tracts is an integral part of pathogenesis of EHBA.