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Bioremediation: Microbial and Plant Assisted Remediation of Contaminated Environments

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Towards Sustainable Natural Resources

Abstract

In the previous decades, the pollution of the environment has increased due to rapid growth in human population, urbanization, and industrialization. The indiscriminate use of the resources by the ever-increasing human population has increased the pollution of environmental sites mainly by industrial effluents, sewage, surface runoff from agricultural fields, fertilizers, and pesticides. The widespread degradation of natural ecosystems by pollutants cause serious threats as they get into various environments (air, soil, and water) and accumulate in food chains. Conventional methods used in the remediation/treatment processes of contaminated environments are expensive, inefficient, leave toxic residues in the environment, and are not reliable. Therefore, bioremediation is viewed as an evolving and promising technique in the treatment of various types of contaminants. Bioremediation of polluted environments has proven successful, efficient, and reliable because of its environment-friendly features. The basic principle of bioremediation is natural attenuation also known as intrinsic bioremediation, which involves the remediation of polluted sites naturally in the environments without any anthropogenic interference to reduce the toxicity, mass, and concentration of pollutants in those media. Bioremediation may involve the use of plants, fungi, bacteria, and other algae for remediation but the process mainly focuses on the use of microorganisms. This chapter, therefore, tries to provide a comprehensive knowledge of the potential role of bioremediation technologies and processes for the potential remediation of contaminated sites.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Science, University of Kashmir, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, 190006, India

    Masarat Nabi & Shahid Ahmad Dar

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  1. Masarat Nabi
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  2. Shahid Ahmad Dar
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Correspondence to Shahid Ahmad Dar .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, Kumaun University, Nainital, Uttarakhand, India

    Meenu Rani

  2. Department of Geophysics, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, Haryana, India

    Bhagwan Singh Chaudhary

  3. Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Saleha Jamal

  4. College of Horticulture and Forestry, Rani Lakshmi Bai Central Agricultural Un, Jhansi, India

    Pavan Kumar

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Nabi, M., Dar, S.A. (2022). Bioremediation: Microbial and Plant Assisted Remediation of Contaminated Environments. In: Rani, M., Chaudhary, B.S., Jamal, S., Kumar, P. (eds) Towards Sustainable Natural Resources. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06443-2_10

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