around 250 million cases of waterborne disease and 0.005–0.01 billion deaths in a
year. A vigorous development in agricultural as well as industrial sector has resulted
in excess production of chemicals and its entrance into the environment as toxic
contaminants (Sharma et al. 2014). Due to extreme presence of these potential
toxicants, clean water and healthy soil have become scarce resulting in limited
crop production (Kamaludeen et al. 2003).
There are a number of toxic agents which pose serious hazardous effect to our
environment resulting in water, air, and soil pollution (Goutam et al. 2018;
Bharagava et al. 2017a; b; Goutam et al. 2017; Saxena et al. 2016; Saxena and
Bharagava 2015). The remediation of such pollution in water and soil often involves
some technologies that are expensive, cost-effective, and labor-intensive and require
site restoration either with physical or chemical methods. Due to drawbacks of these
technologies, scientists have started to develop some new technology as an alternative to using plant and microorganism or both in an interaction for the removal of
toxic contaminants in soil (Glick 2003).
Use of certain plants for removal or destruction of hazardous toxicants from
environment for its cleanup is the recently developed method and termed as
phytoremediation. The plants used in this method are called hyperaccumulators
which grow best in metal concentration-rich soil (Glick 2003). Alkorta and Garbisu
(2001) have reported phytoremediation to be an effective, nonintrusive, in situ,
aesthetically pleasing, low-cost, and socially accepted technology for the remediation of polluted soil. This technology may remediate the pollutants in several forms:
phytostabilization, rhizofiltration, phytoextraction, and phytovolatilization.
Bioremediation is the process which uses microorganisms like bacteria or fungi
and yeast for the cleaning of polluted water and soil (Bharagava et al. 2017c; Saxena
and Bharagava 2017; Kishor et al. 2018). In this technology, the growth of indigenous microbial consortia of polluted site is promoted for desired activity (Agarwal
1998) by controlling biotic and abiotic stresses.
Not only remediation of environmental pollutions but plant-microbe interaction
contributes to sustainable development of agriculture also. Nowadays, there is a big
challenge in crop production with reduced use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers.
Therefore the use of PGPR for increase in crop yield has proved environmentally
friendly approach as an alternative to such problems. The direct and indirect
mechanism of plant growth promotion by these PGPR includes nutrient regulation
and hormonal regulation in plants resulting in induced resistance against
phytopathogens.
The current chapter is based on the elastration of available physicochemical
technologies for environmental remediation and plant microbial interaction with
special reference to phytoremediation and bioremediation for the sustainable development of agroecosystem.
416
A. Mishra et al.
year. A vigorous development in agricultural as well as industrial sector has resulted
in excess production of chemicals and its entrance into the environment as toxic
contaminants (Sharma et al. 2014). Due to extreme presence of these potential
toxicants, clean water and healthy soil have become scarce resulting in limited
crop production (Kamaludeen et al. 2003).
There are a number of toxic agents which pose serious hazardous effect to our
environment resulting in water, air, and soil pollution (Goutam et al. 2018;
Bharagava et al. 2017a; b; Goutam et al. 2017; Saxena et al. 2016; Saxena and
Bharagava 2015). The remediation of such pollution in water and soil often involves
some technologies that are expensive, cost-effective, and labor-intensive and require
site restoration either with physical or chemical methods. Due to drawbacks of these
technologies, scientists have started to develop some new technology as an alternative to using plant and microorganism or both in an interaction for the removal of
toxic contaminants in soil (Glick 2003).
Use of certain plants for removal or destruction of hazardous toxicants from
environment for its cleanup is the recently developed method and termed as
phytoremediation. The plants used in this method are called hyperaccumulators
which grow best in metal concentration-rich soil (Glick 2003). Alkorta and Garbisu
(2001) have reported phytoremediation to be an effective, nonintrusive, in situ,
aesthetically pleasing, low-cost, and socially accepted technology for the remediation of polluted soil. This technology may remediate the pollutants in several forms:
phytostabilization, rhizofiltration, phytoextraction, and phytovolatilization.
Bioremediation is the process which uses microorganisms like bacteria or fungi
and yeast for the cleaning of polluted water and soil (Bharagava et al. 2017c; Saxena
and Bharagava 2017; Kishor et al. 2018). In this technology, the growth of indigenous microbial consortia of polluted site is promoted for desired activity (Agarwal
1998) by controlling biotic and abiotic stresses.
Not only remediation of environmental pollutions but plant-microbe interaction
contributes to sustainable development of agriculture also. Nowadays, there is a big
challenge in crop production with reduced use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers.
Therefore the use of PGPR for increase in crop yield has proved environmentally
friendly approach as an alternative to such problems. The direct and indirect
mechanism of plant growth promotion by these PGPR includes nutrient regulation
and hormonal regulation in plants resulting in induced resistance against
phytopathogens.
The current chapter is based on the elastration of available physicochemical
technologies for environmental remediation and plant microbial interaction with
special reference to phytoremediation and bioremediation for the sustainable development of agroecosystem.
416
A. Mishra et al.