Improved and Integrated phytoremediation of contaminated soils and co-generation of value additions
Guest Editor: Prof. M.N.V. Prasad
School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India
Anthropogenic human activities and mineralization of land resources are primarily responsible for soil pollution. Heavy metals or potenially toxic trace elements do not degrade and their persistence in the environment results adverse effects on the soil and agricultural productivity. In recent decades, more than 2 ⅹ107 ha of farmland exposedto heavy metals in China which lead to a sharp decrease in field productivity. Traditional methods to remediate HMs contaminated soils such as liming, vitrification, soil vapor extraction, electro-kinetic remediation, thermal extraction, ion exchange are usually energy consuming and requires expensive machinery. Every method has its own disadvantages, i.e., fertility loss, poor feasibility, unsustainability, prohibitive cost and environment disruption which often cause secondary pollution.Therefore, it is important to develop sustainable approaches cpr soil decontamination.
In recent days, special attention has been paid to use natural organic amendments which facilitate growth of the plants and soil clean-up. Stabilization of polluted soils using organic (compost, coal fly ash, and biosolids); inorganic amendments (phosphate, limeand zerovalent iron grid), synthetic chelators (S,S-ethylenediaminesuccinic acid [EDDS] and ethylenediaminetriacetic acid [EDTA]); agro- and industrial wastes (sugar beet residue, compost sewage sludge or molasses); biochar; humic substances (fulvic acid, humic acid and humine); bio-stimulants (citric, oxalic, gallic, vanillic, succinic, malonic and maleic acids) are commonly used to manipulate metal bioavailability, improve soil properties and increase plant biomass production. High quality and novel articles are solicited for submission to this special issue.