Soils, Biofortification, and Human Health Under COVID-19: Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

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.

Soil and Humans: A Comparative and A Pictorial Mini-Review

“…Soils provide a range of ecosystem services beyond just food, and support us with feed, energy, shelter, and fibres. The close relationship between soil and humans has been investigated in numerous publications (e.g., Brevik and Pereg 2017;Steffan et al 2018;Bipin et al 2019;El-Ramady et al 2019a, b;Brevik et al 2020;Brevik et al 2021;El-Ramady et al 2021;Oliver and Brevik 2022). Egypt.…”

A Comparative Photographic Review on Higher Plants and Macro-Fungi: A Soil Restoration for Sustainable Production of Food and Energy

“…Mineral elements in the soil are taken up by the plant roots and transported to the edible parts for human consumption through various different transporters. Therefore, several studies focus on the edible plants from different points of view for human health, including (i) studies of plant functional traits for human health, especially unconventional edible plants [4][5][6]; (ii) producing biofortified plants with a focus on the malnutrition/medicinal attributes [7][8][9][10][11][12], (iii) nutritional aspects of plant-based diets for human diseases [13][14][15], (iv) studies of plant secondary metabolites and their extraction as bioactive compounds [16,17], (v) anti-nutrients of major plant-based foods [18], (vi) food security and plant nutrition under problems of climate change [19], and (vii) using mushrooms as bioindicators for pollution and its risks to health [20].…”