Nanobubble-Driven Precision Aeration: Deciphering Abiotic Hypoxia Responses via Multi-Omics for Next-Generation Smart Agriculture

Soil salinity and drought can restrict oxygen availability in the root zone, adding hypoxic stress to the ionic, osmotic, and hydraulic constraints experienced by crops. Nanobubble (NB) water offers a chemical-free approach for delivering highly dispersed oxygen and sustaining dissolved oxygen during irrigation. This review connects the physicochemical behavior of NBs with plant responses to salinity- and drought-associated hypoxia. It examines restoration of aerobic respiration and ATP homeostasis, modulation of ethylene response factor group VII and hypoxia-responsive gene signaling, recovery of ion transport and aquaporin function, redox regulation, hormonal cross-talk, and rhizosphere microbiome responses. Evidence from rice, maize, wheat, cotton, and controlled-environment systems is evaluated alongside opportunities for nanoparticle co-delivery, nanofertilizers, seed priming, and sensor-guided irrigation. The review also outlines how transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, epigenomics, ionomics, and phenomics can resolve NB-mediated mechanisms across the plant–soil continuum. Current evidence supports NB irrigation as a promising precision-aeration platform, but field-scale validation, standardized NB characterization, dose–response studies, energy and cost assessments, and long-term environmental safety analyses remain necessary before broad agricultural deployment.