Silicon Advances for Sustainable Agriculture and Human Health

Renato de Mello Prado, holds a PhD in Agronomy from São Paulo State University (UNESP), Brazil and did his post-doctorate in Plant Nutrition at Universidad Córdoba, Spain and at Universidad Pública de Navarra, Spain. He is currently Professor at UNESP in Undergraduate and Graduate Studies (Plant Production / Soil Science), CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, Brazil) researcher and collaborator in other national and international universities. Supervised and co-supervised more than one hundred master's and doctoral students and more than thirty post-doctors. He has experience in plant nutrition, working in the teaching of the discipline and in the coordination of the Study Group on Plant Nutrition at Unesp (Genplant), which addresses the topics: studies of nutritional disorders, nutrient mobility, leaf nutrition, nutritional efficiency, silicon, leaf diagnosis and nutrition of different cultures. Published more than five hundred scientific articles in indexed journals.

Hassan Etesami is an Associate Professor at University of Tehran, Iran. He received a PhD degree in Soil Biology and Biotechnology from University of Tehran, Iran and he has published over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, according to Scopus database. His research area are microbial ecology, plant-microbe interactions, biofertilizers, integrated management of abiotic stresses, and bioremediation. Dr. Etesami is exploring the mechanisms by which microorganisms (bacteria and fungi) (and their interaction with silicon and biochar) can improve plant tolerance to various environmental stresses mainly salinity, drought and heavy metal stress.

A.K. Srivastava received his M.Sc.(Ag) and Ph.D in Soil Science from Banaras Hindu University, and is currently a Principal Scientist (Soil Science) at ICAR-Central Citrus Research Institute. He has extensively pursued research work on different aspects of citrus nutrition like nutrient constraints analysis of citrus orchards by developing DRIS-based soil-plant nutrient diagnostics, orchard efficiency modeling, targeted yield-based site specific nutrient management exploiting spatial variability in soil fertility, citrus rhizosphere specific microbial consortium and soil carbon loading, INM module, fertigation scheduling, nutrient mapping using geospatial tools, nutrient dynamic studies, transformation of soil microbial biomass nutrients within citrus rhizosphere and soil fertility map as decision support tool for fertilizer recommendation.

Chapter 1 Challenges of plant nutrition in the face of climate change.- Chapter 2 Silicon: the only element in plant nutrition with a mitigating effect on multiple stresses.- Chapter 3 Silicon and nano-silicon in water use efficiency.- Chapter 4 Silicon and nano-silicon on the activity of soil microorganisms to release nutrients and plant tolerance to stress.- Chapter 5 Silicon in pest control.- Chapter 6 Silicon in soil C sequestration in phytoliths decreases CO2 emission.- Chapter 7 Silicon and nano-silicon on C:N:P stoichiometry and nutrient use efficiency.- Chapter 8 Silicon stimulates flowering and yield quality.- Chapter 9 Importance of silicon in plant nanonutrition.- Chapter 10 Overview of nano-silicon in plants: absorption, translocation and phytotoxicity.- Chapter 11 Innovations on silicon transmembrane transporters in plants.- Chapter 12 Absorption and xylem transport of nano-silicon in plants.- Chapter 13 Nano-silicon for sustainable agriculture: improvements in soil health.- Chapter 14 Potential of non-biogenic nano-silicon from sand for sustainable agriculture.- Chapter 15 New sources of nano-silicon from biogenic silica for sustainable agriculture.- Chapter 16 Nano-silicon from rice husks for sustainable crop protection.- Chapter 17 Nano-silicon in agriculture: effectiveness and concerns.- Chapter 18 Overview of silicon in plant and human biology.- Chapter 19 Biogenic silica in the treatment of diabetes disease: study in mice.- Chapter 20 Optimized plant nutrition for precision biofortification to meet nutrition custom human.- Chapter 21 Sources and bioavailability of silicon for adequate human nutrition.- Chapter 22 Degradability and clearance of nanosilicon in humans and the effects on health.- Chapter 23 Importance of silicon bioavailability in bone formation using birds as a model.- Chapter 24 Use of silicon in animal diets reduces digestion of saturated fat and may decrease chronic disease.- Chapter 25 Biological and therapeutic effects of orthosilicic acid: new perspectives for therapy.- Chapter 26 Importance of silicon in bone health: advances and challenges.