9 Challenges and Limitation for Phytoremediation
There is immediate need for greener technologies without serious implications for
the environment. Phytoremediation appears stronger in such cases, although we need
to acknowledge its limitations: researchers should consider the drawbacks and
challenges to be encountered when bringing it to field trials as well as its importance
in ecosystem well-being. Many strategies have been considered to overcome the
challenges such as plant stress and other environmental conditions.
Rhizoremediation is also promising and widely studied to improve its performance
in greenhouses in conjunction with field trials to address field adaptation and
overcome the drawbacks. New protocols are needed for effective sampling, analysis,
and interpretation to represent results acquired from rhizoremediation as well as
phytoremediation. Particular efforts have been focused on cost-effective method
development that distinguishes between peterogenic and phytogenic carbon compounds, which may bring technology acceptance and even motivate regulators in
changing guidelines for organic compound remediation. Rhizoremediation now has
gained in importance over phytoremediation as being a very compatible, effective,
and cost-efficient method that actively removes HMs and other organic pollutants
from affected ecosystems.
10 Concluding Remarks and Future Aspects
When compared to the past, phytoremediation now shows significant development
in actively taking a part in environmental health. However, this technology, now
extensively applied in pilot and field applications, always needs greater understanding of the interactions of rhizosphere factors such as soil, metal, pollutants, microorganisms, and roots to make it more successful. Plant tolerance to metal hyperaccumulation and the metabolism and fate of metal ions inside plant tissues can only
be explored by technological developments in spectroscopy and chromatography to
bring credit to this greener way of cleaning up contaminated environments. Environmental bioavailability of metals to root systems also kindles research focused on
enhancing their solubility rates and conjugation levels with environmentally harmless chelating chemicals, highlighting cost-effectiveness and efficiency standards.
Different plant species with effective rates of extraction of metals in the same
environment should be identified and selected for crop rotation to make the process
complete within a given timeframe; the process has to be optimized to reduce the
time needed for various stages of the growth cycle and harvesting. For agro-mining,
the most reliable sources are moderately polluted soil types. Phytostabilization is an
alternative practical approach widely adopted worldwide for cleaning up abandoned
and modern rural and industrial pollutant sites. Only a few types of hyperaccumulator plants react successfully with soils containing more than one type of
toxic pollutant, suggesting supplementary remediation processes to remove
106
M. K. Awasthi et al.
There is immediate need for greener technologies without serious implications for
the environment. Phytoremediation appears stronger in such cases, although we need
to acknowledge its limitations: researchers should consider the drawbacks and
challenges to be encountered when bringing it to field trials as well as its importance
in ecosystem well-being. Many strategies have been considered to overcome the
challenges such as plant stress and other environmental conditions.
Rhizoremediation is also promising and widely studied to improve its performance
in greenhouses in conjunction with field trials to address field adaptation and
overcome the drawbacks. New protocols are needed for effective sampling, analysis,
and interpretation to represent results acquired from rhizoremediation as well as
phytoremediation. Particular efforts have been focused on cost-effective method
development that distinguishes between peterogenic and phytogenic carbon compounds, which may bring technology acceptance and even motivate regulators in
changing guidelines for organic compound remediation. Rhizoremediation now has
gained in importance over phytoremediation as being a very compatible, effective,
and cost-efficient method that actively removes HMs and other organic pollutants
from affected ecosystems.
10 Concluding Remarks and Future Aspects
When compared to the past, phytoremediation now shows significant development
in actively taking a part in environmental health. However, this technology, now
extensively applied in pilot and field applications, always needs greater understanding of the interactions of rhizosphere factors such as soil, metal, pollutants, microorganisms, and roots to make it more successful. Plant tolerance to metal hyperaccumulation and the metabolism and fate of metal ions inside plant tissues can only
be explored by technological developments in spectroscopy and chromatography to
bring credit to this greener way of cleaning up contaminated environments. Environmental bioavailability of metals to root systems also kindles research focused on
enhancing their solubility rates and conjugation levels with environmentally harmless chelating chemicals, highlighting cost-effectiveness and efficiency standards.
Different plant species with effective rates of extraction of metals in the same
environment should be identified and selected for crop rotation to make the process
complete within a given timeframe; the process has to be optimized to reduce the
time needed for various stages of the growth cycle and harvesting. For agro-mining,
the most reliable sources are moderately polluted soil types. Phytostabilization is an
alternative practical approach widely adopted worldwide for cleaning up abandoned
and modern rural and industrial pollutant sites. Only a few types of hyperaccumulator plants react successfully with soils containing more than one type of
toxic pollutant, suggesting supplementary remediation processes to remove
106
M. K. Awasthi et al.