8.3 Impact of Soil Pollution
Soil pollution adversely affects the plants, animals, and humans health (Lu et al.
2015). Those persons who directly or indirectly inhaled or ingested the soil pollutant
may lose the general health or face health problem in the form of diseases such as
high lead blood levels in children, arthralgia, osteomalacia, and excessive cadmium
in urine (Zhang et al. 2012a, b). However, children are very sensitive to exposure to
soil pollutants or contaminants, whenever they come in close contact with the
contaminated soil by playing in the ground; then the pollutant may affect those
children, and due to this, they suffer from asthma or allergenic-related problems
(Heinzerling et al. 2016) as well as adults also affected. Humans living near the
polluted soil are facing health-related problems such as migraines, nausea, fatigue,
skin disorders, and even miscarriages, and those people who are exposed to soil
contamination for a longer period of time are suffering from cancer, leukemia,
reproductive disorders, kidney and liver damage, and central nervous system failure
(Mishra et al. 2015). Soil pollution is considered a big problem globally with respect
to decreasing soil fertility and productivity, so the microbial activity including PGPR
helps to cope up with such kind of situation; for example some PGPR have the
ability to grow in the polluted soil by utilizing various kinds of pollutants or form the
energy through the degradation of the pollutants present in the soil, so the application
of such kind of PGPR in a timely manner in the soil helps to alleviate soil pollution
by the process of bioremediation (Pilon-Smits 2005).
8.4 Bioremediation
Bioremediation includes the use of living organisms and their products, to remove
contaminants from soil (USEPA 2012; Leung 2004) or to transform high toxic into
less toxic forms (Memon and Schröder 2009). Certain microorganisms are involved
in bioremediation of polluted environment. Maximum bioremediation processes
utilize native microbial species including plant growth–promoting rhizobacteria
(PGPR) (Khan et al. 2009), fungi (Zaidi et al. 2011), actinomycetes (El-Syed et al.
2011), algae (Huq et al. 2007), or plants (Marchand et al. 2010) which can be helpful
in reclamation of the soil at optimum level.
According to Zaidi et al. (2012), bioremediation can be divided into two categories, which is in situ and ex situ bioremediation. In situ bioremediation includes the
utilization of microorganism for the treatment of the hazardous chemicals in the soil
and surface or subsurface waters while ex situ bioremediation requires diggings of
contaminated soil or pumping of groundwater to facilitate microbial degradation; it
has some disadvantages. So, in situ bioremediation method is considered more
superior than ex situ bioremediation because it does not need digging of the
contaminated soil as well as low-cost technology of contaminated soil
bioremediation.
8 Bioremediation of Polluted Soil by Using Plant Growth–Promoting Rhizobacteria
207
Soil pollution adversely affects the plants, animals, and humans health (Lu et al.
2015). Those persons who directly or indirectly inhaled or ingested the soil pollutant
may lose the general health or face health problem in the form of diseases such as
high lead blood levels in children, arthralgia, osteomalacia, and excessive cadmium
in urine (Zhang et al. 2012a, b). However, children are very sensitive to exposure to
soil pollutants or contaminants, whenever they come in close contact with the
contaminated soil by playing in the ground; then the pollutant may affect those
children, and due to this, they suffer from asthma or allergenic-related problems
(Heinzerling et al. 2016) as well as adults also affected. Humans living near the
polluted soil are facing health-related problems such as migraines, nausea, fatigue,
skin disorders, and even miscarriages, and those people who are exposed to soil
contamination for a longer period of time are suffering from cancer, leukemia,
reproductive disorders, kidney and liver damage, and central nervous system failure
(Mishra et al. 2015). Soil pollution is considered a big problem globally with respect
to decreasing soil fertility and productivity, so the microbial activity including PGPR
helps to cope up with such kind of situation; for example some PGPR have the
ability to grow in the polluted soil by utilizing various kinds of pollutants or form the
energy through the degradation of the pollutants present in the soil, so the application
of such kind of PGPR in a timely manner in the soil helps to alleviate soil pollution
by the process of bioremediation (Pilon-Smits 2005).
8.4 Bioremediation
Bioremediation includes the use of living organisms and their products, to remove
contaminants from soil (USEPA 2012; Leung 2004) or to transform high toxic into
less toxic forms (Memon and Schröder 2009). Certain microorganisms are involved
in bioremediation of polluted environment. Maximum bioremediation processes
utilize native microbial species including plant growth–promoting rhizobacteria
(PGPR) (Khan et al. 2009), fungi (Zaidi et al. 2011), actinomycetes (El-Syed et al.
2011), algae (Huq et al. 2007), or plants (Marchand et al. 2010) which can be helpful
in reclamation of the soil at optimum level.
According to Zaidi et al. (2012), bioremediation can be divided into two categories, which is in situ and ex situ bioremediation. In situ bioremediation includes the
utilization of microorganism for the treatment of the hazardous chemicals in the soil
and surface or subsurface waters while ex situ bioremediation requires diggings of
contaminated soil or pumping of groundwater to facilitate microbial degradation; it
has some disadvantages. So, in situ bioremediation method is considered more
superior than ex situ bioremediation because it does not need digging of the
contaminated soil as well as low-cost technology of contaminated soil
bioremediation.
8 Bioremediation of Polluted Soil by Using Plant Growth–Promoting Rhizobacteria
207