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Bio- and Phytoremediation of Contaminated Soils

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sustainability and Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2018) | Viewed by 8270

Special Issue Editors

Retired after 30 years at EPFL, Laboratory for Environmental Biotechnology, Lausanne, Switzerland
Interests: plant biochemistry; microbial biochemistry; phytoremediation; bioenergetics; biofuels; environmental biotechnology
INRA, UMR BIOGECO INRA 1202, Univ. Bordeaux, Bat B2, allée G. St-Hilaire, CS50023, 33615 Pessac cedex, France
Interests: phytomanagement; phytoremediation; bioremediation; ecological restauration, soil processes and functions; ecosystem services; ecotoxicology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Over the last 20 years, bioremediation and phytoremediation to treat soils moderately contaminated by trace elements and/or organic pollutants have developed rapidly not only at laboratory scale, but also on demonstration sites and at full scale. Both approaches, based on the use of green plants and their associated microorganisms, have the advantage of being less invasive and less expensive than classical physico-chemical technologies, but they are relatively slow and mainly suitable for sites which economic or environmental status does not require urgent cleaning. They should thus be integrated into a long-term phytomanagement, depending also on the redevelopment and planning of the future use of the site.

The scope of the proposed Special Issue of Sustainability is to highlight the progress made recently to unravel the biochemical and physiological mechanisms involved in phytoextraction and phytostabilisation of trace elements, as well as in the dissipation/degradation of organic pollutants by plants and their associated rhizosphere and endophytic microorganisms, including the use of soil amendments and bioaugmentation and the option resilience regarding the climate and global change; on the other hand, the description of success stories at pilot and full scales, with their limitations and difficulties is warmly encouraged.

The purpose of the Special Issue is not only to wrap-up the state-of-the-art of bioremediation, phytoremediation, and phytomanagement of soils contaminated by trace elements and/or organic pollutants, but also to honestly consider the present bottlenecks of our scientific knowledge and the limiting steps of practical applications, as well as to propose innovative solutions to overcome them and contribute to the implementation of such promising green remediation.

Since you and your team are involved in the development of these approaches and in the understanding of the biochemical, physiological and ecological mechanisms at lab-scale and/or in the field, you should contribute to the special issue and submit a manuscript describing your most recent results or a review on some exciting aspects of this promising topic.

Dr. Jean-Paul SCHWITZGUEBEL
Dr. Michel MENCH
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Bioaugmentation
  • biodegradation
  • contaminated sites
  • endophytic microorganisms
  • green plants
  • phytodegradation
  • phytoextraction
  • phytostabilisation
  • phytostimulation
  • rhizospheric microorganisms
  • trace elements
  • xenobiotic compounds

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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11 pages, 252 KiB  
Article
Evaluating the Effect of Bacterial Inoculation and Fertilization on the Soil Nutrient Status of Coal Mine Soil by Growing Soybean (Glycine max) and Shrub Lespedeza (Lespedeza bicolor)
by Chang-Seob Shin, Md. Omar Sharif and Hwa-Yong Lee
Sustainability 2018, 10(12), 4793; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10124793 - 15 Dec 2018
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2400
Abstract
Revegetation with fast-growing N-fixing leguminous plants can be an alternate for reclamation of degraded coal mining areas. Selection of appropriate plant species is an important factor in deciding the success in the remediation of mine spoil. Thus, this study was carried out in [...] Read more.
Revegetation with fast-growing N-fixing leguminous plants can be an alternate for reclamation of degraded coal mining areas. Selection of appropriate plant species is an important factor in deciding the success in the remediation of mine spoil. Thus, this study was carried out in greenhouse conditions to evaluate the effect of two N-fixing leguminous plant seedlings, soybean (Glycine max) and shrub lespedeza (Lespedeza bicolor), on the available N and other soil nutrients (P, K, Ca, and Mg) of the experimental coal mine soil. Four treatments, including T0—non-fertilized non-inoculation (control), T1—fertilization, T2—bacterial inoculation, and T3—combination of fertilization and bacterial inoculation with three replications were applied to both plants. Concentration of NH4+-N and NO3-N increased significantly in the soil at different treatments for both soybean and shrub lespedeza, as compared to control, but apart from control no significant difference was observed between other treatments of increased NH4+-N for soybean and increased NO3-N for shrub lespedeza. The highest number of nodules and dry weight of nodule per plant (g) was recorded 5.73 and 1.8, respectively in soybean, and 7.77 and 2.76, respectively, in shrub lespedeza with bacteria-inoculated treatment (T2), whereas fertilized treatment (T1) produced the lowest number of nodule and dry weight of nodule in both plants. Increasing of available P and K was significantly high when NPK fertilizer was applied to the plants but decreased at other treatments. Therefore, it can be concluded that soybean and shrub lespedeza have a significant role in changing soil nutrient status in coal mining soil through fertilizer application and biological N fixation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bio- and Phytoremediation of Contaminated Soils)

Review

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14 pages, 404 KiB  
Review
Metal(loid) Bioremediation: Strategies Employed by Microbial Polymers
by Ayansina Segun Ayangbenro and Olubukola Oluranti Babalola
Sustainability 2018, 10(9), 3028; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10093028 - 26 Aug 2018
Cited by 47 | Viewed by 5391
Abstract
Environmental pollution arising from metal(loid)s is a result of industrialization, and has led to serious health issues. Conventional methods of metal(loid) removal often results in generation of secondary waste which is toxic to the environment. Bioremediation in combination with physicochemical techniques offer an [...] Read more.
Environmental pollution arising from metal(loid)s is a result of industrialization, and has led to serious health issues. Conventional methods of metal(loid) removal often results in generation of secondary waste which is toxic to the environment. Bioremediation in combination with physicochemical techniques offer an excellent and effective means of removal. The use of secondary metabolites and extracellular polymers produced by microorganisms is an effective procedure employed in metal(loid) sequestration and reduction in toxicity of contaminated environments. These biopolymers have different chemical structures and have shown varied selectivity to different metal(loid)s. This review discusses various microbial polymers, their mechanism of metal(loid) removal and their potential application in remediation of contaminated environment. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bio- and Phytoremediation of Contaminated Soils)
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