observed that more research is needed in order to fully understand the mechanisms of
VAM fungi.
Keywords Anthropogenic pollution · Bioremediation · Degradation · Fungi ·
Phytoremediation
6.1 Introduction
In the third report of Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution U.K., the term
“Pollution” is defined as the introduction of hazardous matter by human being into
the environment that is liable to cause hazardous impact on living organism, damage
to structure or amenity, or interference with legitimate uses of the environment
(Appannagari 2017). Pollution can be broadly classified as natural pollution and
man-made pollution or anthropogenic (Negev et al. 2010). In case of natural
pollution, nature pollutes the environment through different activities like earthquakes, floods, drought, and cyclones, but in case of anthropogenic pollution, human
beings spread pollution in air/water/land/food through their different activities like
generation of toxic gasses, percolate waste in water and land, and producing
radioactive compounds from nuclear reactor. The main pollutants produced by
anthropogenic activities that drastically affect the environment are (Anand 2013;
Holliger et al. 1997) polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) (Deshmukh et al. 2016),
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) (Akcil et al. 2015), polychlorinated dibenzo-pdioxins (PCDDs) (Passatore et al. 2014), polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs)
(Megharaj et al. 2014), heavy metals, etc. (Verma et al. 2016b; Das and Chandran
2010).
In the present scenario, the pollution caused by heavy metals is the primary
concern around the world because heavy metal toxicity in the environment is a
serious threat to the health of animals, plants, and humans (Ayangbenro and
Babalola 2017). Contaminants of heavy metals cannot be degraded by chemical,
physical, or biological processes. Hence, only level of toxicity is reduced
(Chaturvedi et al. 2015). Heavy metal is dumped in environment through various
modes like disposal of industrial metals waste and mining activity, etc. In the
presence of heavy metal, soil properties are adversely affected. When high concentration of heavy metal such as Pb, Cd, Zn show reduced level of eco-friendly
microbes like phosphorous solubilizing bacteria and nitrogen fixing bacteria
(Fliessbach et al. 1994; Giller et al. 1998; Verma et al. 2016b) and affect the soil’s
physical properties like pH, temperature, and chemical properties like organic
matter, clay mineral, and inorganic ion content (Baath 1989; Giller et al. 1998).
Usually, copper, nickel, zinc, manganese, and iron present in trace amounts as
natural constituents are harmless, but overlimiting the percentage has toxic effects
on plants and animals as it gets accumulated in the food chain (Panda and Choudhary
154
P. Verma et al.
VAM fungi.
Keywords Anthropogenic pollution · Bioremediation · Degradation · Fungi ·
Phytoremediation
6.1 Introduction
In the third report of Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution U.K., the term
“Pollution” is defined as the introduction of hazardous matter by human being into
the environment that is liable to cause hazardous impact on living organism, damage
to structure or amenity, or interference with legitimate uses of the environment
(Appannagari 2017). Pollution can be broadly classified as natural pollution and
man-made pollution or anthropogenic (Negev et al. 2010). In case of natural
pollution, nature pollutes the environment through different activities like earthquakes, floods, drought, and cyclones, but in case of anthropogenic pollution, human
beings spread pollution in air/water/land/food through their different activities like
generation of toxic gasses, percolate waste in water and land, and producing
radioactive compounds from nuclear reactor. The main pollutants produced by
anthropogenic activities that drastically affect the environment are (Anand 2013;
Holliger et al. 1997) polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) (Deshmukh et al. 2016),
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) (Akcil et al. 2015), polychlorinated dibenzo-pdioxins (PCDDs) (Passatore et al. 2014), polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs)
(Megharaj et al. 2014), heavy metals, etc. (Verma et al. 2016b; Das and Chandran
2010).
In the present scenario, the pollution caused by heavy metals is the primary
concern around the world because heavy metal toxicity in the environment is a
serious threat to the health of animals, plants, and humans (Ayangbenro and
Babalola 2017). Contaminants of heavy metals cannot be degraded by chemical,
physical, or biological processes. Hence, only level of toxicity is reduced
(Chaturvedi et al. 2015). Heavy metal is dumped in environment through various
modes like disposal of industrial metals waste and mining activity, etc. In the
presence of heavy metal, soil properties are adversely affected. When high concentration of heavy metal such as Pb, Cd, Zn show reduced level of eco-friendly
microbes like phosphorous solubilizing bacteria and nitrogen fixing bacteria
(Fliessbach et al. 1994; Giller et al. 1998; Verma et al. 2016b) and affect the soil’s
physical properties like pH, temperature, and chemical properties like organic
matter, clay mineral, and inorganic ion content (Baath 1989; Giller et al. 1998).
Usually, copper, nickel, zinc, manganese, and iron present in trace amounts as
natural constituents are harmless, but overlimiting the percentage has toxic effects
on plants and animals as it gets accumulated in the food chain (Panda and Choudhary
154
P. Verma et al.