Mediterranean agriculture is increasingly challenged by converging environmental stressors, including drought, soil degradation, salinization, temperature extremes, and declining organic matter. Perennial systems such as olive orchards are particularly exposed, facing climate instability and stricter sustainability policies that reduce reliance on conventional agrochemicals.

Microbiome-based biological solutions offer significant potential to enhance crop resilience and sustain productivity, yet their field performance remains inconsistent, revealing a persistent gap between experimental success and orchard-scale reliability.

This limitation reflects fundamental ecological constraints. Plant genotypes filter microbial partners, while resident communities and environmental pressures shape establishment and persistence. Salinity, as a model stressor, illustrates how plant metabolic reprogramming is closely coupled with shifts in rhizosphere microbiomes. Effective interventions must therefore consider plant–microbiome dynamics, soil stress conditions, and the structural complexity of woody crops.

Future progress depends on moving beyond single-strain approaches toward integrated microbiome engineering, combining genotype-aware consortia, stress-adapted formulations, and delivery strategies tailored to perennial Mediterranean systems.

Ângela Cunha is an Associate Professor with Habilitation in Biology at the University of Aveiro (Portugal). She leads the Environmental Microbiology Laboratory (LMICRA) and is a researcher at the Center for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM). Her work centers on environmental microbiology and microbial ecology, especially plant–microbe interactions and how microbiomes respond to environmental stress. She focuses on developing microbiome-based solutions to support sustainable agriculture and improve crop resilience, particularly in Mediterranean ecosystems. She has been actively involved in numerous national and international research projects related to microbial diversity, biocontrol, and climate challenges. Alongside her research, she coordinates the bachelor’s degree in biology at the University of Aveiro and teaches courses in microbiology, connecting theoretical knowledge with practical, innovation-driven applications for sustainability.

The coupling of solar-driven photothermal steam generation with conventional photocatalysis represents a novel and highly promising strategy, offering synergistic benefits across a wide range of applications such as seawater desalination, water treatment, and sustainable hydrogen production. This integrated approach enhances solar energy utilization by merging interfacial steam generation with photocatalytic redox reactions. This talk aims to discuss our recent progress in the development and optimization of hybrid photothermal-photocatalytic systems. Various system architectures were engineered using advanced nanostructured photothermal and photocatalytic materials to improve solar absorption, thermal management, charge carrier separation, and overall efficiency under irradiation. These systems were successfully applied for hydrogen production, seawater desalination and water detoxification. This integrated platform provides enhanced performance, introduces new mechanistic insights, and is well aligned with circular economy principles and zero-waste strategies.

Ridha Djellabi is a chemist specializing in sustainable technologies for environmental remediation and energy production. Since 2022, he has been recognized among the World’s Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University (USA) and Elsevier. He earned his PhD in Analytical and Environmental Chemistry from Badji Mokhtar University (Algeria), with part of his doctoral research conducted at the University of Milan (Italy). Following his PhD, he completed postdoctoral research at the Laboratory of Separation and Reaction Engineering in Porto (Portugal). Dr. Djellabi subsequently held research positions at the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences (China) and Shenzhen University (China). In 2020, he returned to the University of Milan (Italy) as a researcher for two years. He then served as a Personal Docent and researcher at Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona (Spain). He is currently an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Alfaisal University (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia). His research focuses on the development of solar-driven materials for steam generation and photocatalytic processes, with applications in environmental remediation, energy conversion, and the valorization of food and biomass waste into high-value products. Dr. Djellabi has co-authored more than 125 scientific publications, holds a patent, and has contributed to several book chapters. He has also organized multiple special issues in scientific journals and currently serves as an Associate Editor of the Euro-Mediterranean Journal for Environmental Integration.