Land utilization of biosolids and applications of fertilizers and pesticides have contributed to a continuous accumulation of pollutants in many aquatic and near-surface systems. Typical pollutants include persistent toxic substances such as trace metals, radionuclides, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), microplastics, etc.

The fate of pollutants in the environment depends largely on their interactions with inorganic and organic surfaces. Therefore, the interactions between the typical pollutants and the major active components (e.g., minerals, organic components, microorganisms, and plants) in the soil-plant system have enormous impacts on a series of reactions and processes, which are critical to environmental quality and ecosystem health. Fundamental understanding of these reactions and processes at the atomic, molecular, and microscopic levels is essential for the remediation of pollution. Research on biogeochemical processes of toxic pollutants is becoming a frontier in areas of soil pollution, control, and remediation and a challenge for scientists.

This Special Issue reflects the great challenges we all face in protecting our environment from contamination by toxic pollutants and will offer an excellent platform for scientists and professionals working on toxic pollutants across multiple disciplines to present the state-of-the-art research findings, exchange ideas, and discuss how the knowledge can be used for protecting our ecological environment, as well as for improving soil ecosystem services and human health. Original research and review articles are welcome.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Sources, flux, transfer, and bioavailability of soil pollutants
• New progress in application of biosorbent, natural and/or engineering nanomaterials for soil contaminant stabilization/detoxification
• Pollutant dynamics and fate in the soil-plant system
• Adsorption modeling of pollutants
• Interaction of organic pollutants and heavy metals at soil-plant interface
• Microplastics fate and interaction with contaminants in the environment
• Environmental behavior and pollution control of antibiotics and its ecological risk assessment
• New methods or models simulating or predicting the mobilization processes of pollutants in soil-plant systems