Plants MDPI

⛰️ Mining leaves long-lasting ecological scars — especially in fragile alpine ecosystems.

🌱 This study evaluated how fertilization and seeding-rate combinations influence vegetation recovery and soil nutrient balance in degraded grasslands of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau. The findings show that some treatments rapidly boosted biomass production, while others better restored long-term vegetation–soil stoichiometric balance and ecosystem stability.

📊 One treatment increased aboveground biomass by nearly 294%, while another achieved nutrient ratios closest to natural grasslands, highlighting the trade-off between rapid recovery and sustainable restoration.

📄 Optimizing Ecological Restoration in Alpine Mining Areas Through Fertilization and Seeding-Rate Management: Insights from Vegetation–Soil Stoichiometry
✍️ Nannan Hu et al.

🔗 Read the full article here: https://brnw.ch/21x3fMG

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🌱 Heavy metal contamination remains a major challenge for ecosystems, agriculture, and food safety worldwide.

🔬 This review explores how nutrient availability regulates microbial metabolism, plant physiology, and rhizosphere interactions involved in heavy metal remediation. The authors highlight how fertilizers, chelating agents, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, and plant-growth-promoting rhizobacteria can enhance phytoremediation efficiency and influence metal uptake dynamics.

🧪 Key findings include sulfur-reducing bacteria precipitating metals as insoluble sulfides with up to 90% efficiency, alongside evidence that nutrient forms such as ammonium or nitrate can modify rhizosphere pH and alter metal bioavailability.

🌍 The review also discusses how emerging approaches including multi-omics, AI-assisted prediction tools, and cisgenesis may help optimize future remediation strategies for contaminated soils.

📄 Nutrient-Driven Modulation of Microbial, Plant, and Rhizosphere Processes for Heavy Metal Remediation
✍️ Lixia Wang et al

🔗 Read the full article here: https://brnw.ch/21x3aFw