Polluted Soils

Biostimulatory effects of cow dung on some fungal biodegradation of atrazine. This work was designed to investigate the effect of using a biostimulant (cow dung) on some fungal strains for the possible degradation of atrazine-contaminated soil. The physicochemical characteristics of the soil and cow dung were determined using standard methods. The effects of pre and post biostimulation of fungal species were carried out using enumeration techniques. Fungal strains such as Trichoderma harzianum and Aspergillus niger were identified based on macroscopic and microscopic identification. Atrazine degradation was monitored by assaying the enzymes involved in the degradation and its metabolites using GC-MS techniques. The results of the soil physicochemical characteristics showed slightly acidic pH (6.7±0.99), moderate calcium (6.3±0.19Cmol/kg), high magnesium (5.10±0.38 Cmol/kg), moderate potassium (0.48±0.02 Cmol/kg, low sodium (0.15±0.01 Cmol/kg), moderately low nitrogen (0.16±0.01g/kg)...

Visibilité et invisibilité de la pollution des sols dans les territoires (post)industriels : de nouvelles perspectives sur la résilience et la justice environnementale ? Le laboratoire cévenol de l'après-mine.Une coextensivité des causes et des responsabilités minières, environnementales et sanitaires The Cevennes laboratory of the post-mine. A coextensivity of mining, environmental and sanitary causes and responsibilities

From the pandemic scenario to the current environmental problems, we present the issue of the indiscriminate and criminal use of pesticides in Brazil and their impacts on the soil. Its reflex on the groundwater, which supplies more than 50% of the Brazilian population, makes them inappropriate for human consumption; even so, they continue to be supplied to the population. Due to the various chemical compounds that make up pesticides, whether by ingesting water or food, irreversible damage to human health and the environment is being caused. Professionals have complained about the harmful effects of pesticide use in Brazil from different areas, and a legal reflection on such an important topic has been urgent.

Aim: To assess the effect of the hydrocarbon discharges from the artisanal refineries on the community structure of microbial mats in an aquatic environment Study Design: The study employs experimental design, statistical analysis of the data and interpretation. Place and Duration of Study: The microbial mats, surface water and sediments samples were collected from four hydrocarbon polluted stations (A, B, C and D) and a control sampling station in Yellow island (Iyalla kiri) in Degema Local Government Area, in Rivers state Nigeria. The samples were immediately transported with ice packs to the Microbiology Laboratory of Rivers State University, Port Harcourt. The study lasted from March 2020 to February 2021, covering both wet and dry seasons. Methodology: Different concentrations of fresh effluent (0, 1.625, 3.25, 6.5, 12.5, 25, 50 and 75%) were prepared in test tubes to final volume of 10ml. Each of the test tubes was inoculated with one milliliter (1ml) of the test organism. Fiv...

The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the interaction of Vicia sativa with a bacterial strain capable of using phenol as sole carbon and energy sources can moderate adverse effects of this pollutant in plant tissues. A bacterial strain identified as Bacillus sp., isolated from a heavily polluted environment, was inoculated at different stages of growth. In root elongation assay, inoculated seeds showed higher values of relative root elongation and germination index than uninoculated ones in the presence of high phenol concentrations. Thus, common vetch-Bacillus sp. association could be important at the first stages of development allowing this plant to grow in highly polluted environments. Besides, phenol removal was largely accelerated in phenol-spiked soils, after 48 h of treatment with uninoculated/inoculated plants rather than by adsorption or biodegradation of the bacterial strain. Peroxidase and ascorbate peroxidase activities increased significantly in uninoculated plants, while superoxide dismutase activity, chlorophyll, malondialdehyde, and H 2 O 2 levels of aerial parts remained unaltered in uninoculated/ inoculated plants treated with the pollutant, demonstrating that the efficient response to oxidative damage did not depend on the inoculation.

The study of microbial communities in relation to their ecology, interaction, and genetics must be covered in Qatar with special soil, weather and water. Microorganisms of an environment never having been exposed to such factors do not have necessarily the ability to resist. However, when exposed to such factors, they are often able to adapt, that is to say the potential to acquire metabolic potentialities by recruitment vertical or horizontal specific genes, or recruitment of metabolic pathways present in the genome but not expressed. In polluted environments with oil hydrocarbons, the phenomena of horizontal/vertical transfers, mutations and adaptation to environmental stressors increase the metabolic capabilities of bacteria, including expanding their range of substrates, and allow their adaptation to new substrates. Extensive research on such fields is often focusing on genetic studies, meaning that the genes pools and expression as well as species occurrence are considered as basis. However, from the biotechnological point of view, the cell is considered, as an analogy, as factory. All its components (physical structure and the functions of the organelles and metabolic activities) are strictly regulated by regulatory machineries strictly controlled by the microenvironment. This approach will help answer the question on the different microbial communities that are available in Qatar soil and how they are unique in some biological activities. Indeed, the focus of our research is to characterize and demonstrate the diversity of biological activities within bacterial communities and strains of the same species. Here, we consider the bacterial activities related to polluting oil hydrocarbondegrading communities, including those which are biosurfactant-producers, Here, we showed that the isolation and screening strategy affected a lot, the selection of the hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria, by combining the bacterial tolerance to hydrocarbon toxicity to the hydrocarbons degradative activities. We demonstrated that several Qatari isolates are able to shift their activity from a range of hydrocarbons to another by the effect of the nitrogen source, C/N ratio and organic nitrogen source. By application of Factorial Investigation of Strains' Potentiality to Degrade Hydrocarbons, which is original in the attempt to integrate the study of the most essential nutritional elements as well as their interactions in one experimental frame, we demonstrated diversity of nutritional requirements among the same bacterial group of Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain, isolated in Qatar. Strains' response to altered growth conditions varied substantially; although they were from the same taxonomical group.

Landfills in urban areas contribute to soil and water pollution with heavy metals. In Côte d'Ivoire, urban landfill soil is used to produce food, which presents health risks. This study evaluates the growth capacity of Acacia spp. trees-legumes (Acacia mangium, Acacia auriculiformis, and Acacia crassicarpa) and their potential for landfill soil remediation and restorations. These trees-legumes were grown under controlled conditions for six months in polluted soils sampled from urban landfills located in southeastern Côte d'Ivoire. The study used a simple, completely randomized design with four treatments (Acacia mangium, Acacia auriculiformis, Acacia crassicarpa, and control) and five replicates. Growth parameters, soil pH, metal contents (bulk soil, leachate), and plants were measured during this experiment. The results indicated that Acacia auriculiformis and Acacia mangium displayed better growth indicators (dry biomass, heights, and number of phyllodes) compared to Acacia crassicarpa. The soil pH under the trees-legumes indicated a significant decrease compared to the control (p < 0.05). In addition, heavy metal contents significantly decreased in the leached solutions of the planted soil compared to the control (p < 0.05). In the exchangeable soil fraction, only the Acacia auriculiformis treatment showed a significant decrease in Zn compared to the control. Regarding the plants, Acacia auriculiformis showed the highest amounts of Pb (111 µg plant-1) and Cd (54 µg plant-1) in total biomasses. Acacia crassicarpa had the highest metal extraction capacity from the polluted soil (Pb: 24 µg plant-1 , Cr: 11 µg plant-1 , Cd: 14 µg plant-1 , and Zn: 83 µg plant-1) compared to the two other species. The Acacia crassicarpa species appears to be the best one for the phytoremediation of landfill soils.

This review presents a comprehensive summary of the latest research in the field of bioremediation with filamentous fungi. The main focus is on the issue of recent progress in remediation of pharmaceutical compounds, heavy metal treatment and oil hydrocarbons mycoremediation that are usually insufficiently represented in other reviews. It encompasses a variety of cellular mechanisms involved in bioremediation used by filamentous fungi, including bio-adsorption, bio-surfactant production, bio-mineralization, bio-precipitation, as well as extracellular and intracellular enzymatic processes. Processes for wastewater treatment accomplished through physical, biological, and chemical processes are briefly described. The species diversity of filamentous fungi used in pollutant removal, including widely studied species of Aspergillus, Penicillium, Fusarium, Verticillium, Phanerochaete and other species of Basidiomycota and Zygomycota are summarized. The removal efficiency of filamentous fun...

Smelting activities are one of the most common sources of trace elements in the environment. The aim of this study was to determine the lead distribution in upper horizons (0-5 and 5-10 cm) of acidic soils in the vicinity of a lead-acid battery recycling plant in northern France. The combination of chemical methods (sequential extractions), physical methods (Raman microspectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy with an energy dispersive spectrometer) and multi-surface complexation modelling enabled an assessment of the behaviour of Pb. Regardless of the studied soil, none of the Pb-bearing phases commonly identified in similarly polluted environments (e.g., anglesite) were observed. Lead was mainly associated with organic matter and manganese oxides. The association of Pb with these soil constituents can be interpreted as evidence of Pb redistribution in the studied soils following smelter particle deposition.

Le recyclage des sites et sols pollués à la suite de leur réhabilitation est une option qui permet d'économiser des sols et de supprimer des risques d'atteintes à la santé et à la sécurité. Il impose cependant de bien identifier qui peut être considéré comme responsable de la dépollution nécessaire à ce recyclage (l'auteur de la pollution, le propriétaire du terrain, la collectivité locale, un tiers), de définir le niveau de la dépollution en fonction de critères liés à un usage futur ou de « simple » remise dans un état « initial » sans préoccupation d'usage et d'intégrer ces revalorisations fonctionnelles dans la planification urbaine.

A laboratory experiment was carried on the same initial soil and at the same time than a windrow treatment in order to compare results at field and laboratory scales for a soil mainly contaminated with PAHs. After 6 months, laboratory experiments gave similar but less scattered results than those obtained in the field indicating that the field biotreatment was well optimised. The total amount of PAHs degraded after 6 months was ca. 90% and degradation rates followed a negative exponential trend. Relative degradation rates of 3-and 4-ring PAHs were about 32 and 7.2 times greater than those of 5-and 6-ring PAHs, respectively. With respect to the bacterial community, bacteria belonging to Gamma-proteobacteria persisted whereas Beta-proteobacteria appeared after three months of biotreatment when PAH concentration was low enough to render the soil non-ecotoxic. Capsule Comparison of field and laboratory biotreatments of the same PAHcontaminated soil gave similar results with respect to PAH concentration and bacterial diversity.

Smelting activities are one of the most common sources of trace elements in the environment. The aim of this study was to determine the lead distribution in upper horizons (0-5 and 5-10 cm) of acidic soils in the vicinity of a lead-acid battery recycling plant in northern France. The combination of chemical methods (sequential extractions), physical methods (Raman microspectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy with an energy dispersive spectrometer) and multi-surface complexation modelling enabled an assessment of the behaviour of Pb. Regardless of the studied soil, none of the Pb-bearing phases commonly identified in similarly polluted environments (e.g., anglesite) were observed. Lead was mainly associated with organic matter and manganese oxides. The association of Pb with these soil constituents can be interpreted as evidence of Pb redistribution in the studied soils following smelter particle deposition.

Aim: To assess the effect of the hydrocarbon discharges from the artisanal refineries on the community structure of microbial mats in an aquatic environment Study Design: The study employs experimental design, statistical analysis of the data and interpretation. Place and Duration of Study: The microbial mats, surface water and sediments samples were collected from four hydrocarbon polluted stations (A, B, C and D) and a control sampling station in Yellow island (Iyalla kiri) in Degema Local Government Area, in Rivers state Nigeria. The samples were immediately transported with ice packs to the Microbiology Laboratory of Rivers State University, Port Harcourt. The study lasted from March 2020 to February 2021, covering both wet and dry seasons. Methodology: Different concentrations of fresh effluent (0, 1.625, 3.25, 6.5, 12.5, 25, 50 and 75%) were prepared in test tubes to final volume of 10ml. Each of the test tubes was inoculated with one milliliter (1ml) of the test organism. Fiv...

Bioremediation is a promising technology for the treatment of polluted areas due to its minor cost;moreover, indigenous fungi had not been already applied to detoxify contaminated habitats. The kinetic of atrazine degradation by Gliocladium roseum, Mucor alternans and Pycnidiophora dispersa were assessed in soluble and soil sorbed herbicide with different organic matter content. Their half-saturation constants, Km, expressed the affinity for the substrate, being 12.5, 3.8 and 2.7 μg/ml for G. roseum, M. alternans and P. dispersa. Moreover, Vmax, uptake rate/ biomass, assumed by the asymptotes of each fungal curves were 43.5-41.0, 37.5-35.0 and 26.5-24.5 μg Atz/min-1. mg for G. roseum, M. alternans and P. dispersa, respectivelly. The 65-75% was in soluble phase, that was preferentially degraded by fungi. Our results showed that the atrazine transformation were consistent with those in pure cultures, suggesting that the parameters derived from in-vitro studies may be useful to predict...

Polluted soils also are a potential threat to ecosystems and to human health. This threat is generally approached by chemical characterization based on quantification of the total content of pollutants present in the contaminated matrices. However, it provides limited information particularly on pollutant bioavailability. So, an ecotoxicological approach is essential to evaluate the danger associated with polluted soils in complement of chemical analysis. It is within this framework that this project took place, aiming at coupling physico-chemical characterization to biological response, in order to approach the potential threat of contaminated soils on ecosystems. The study was carried out on two soils sampled from two different industrial sites. Soil 2 underwent a biological treatment for 18 months, whereas soil 1 remained untreated. Both soils were heavily polluted, with similar PAHs concentrations (about 3 g.kg-1 of dried soil). The two soils studied gave different ecotox-scores when subjected to a battery of bioassays including solid- and liquid-bioassays. The total PAH content of the soil is not a pertinent parameter to assess soil pollution hazards contrary to the distribution of PAHs. The distribution of PAH fractions directly accessible to organisms in water extracts is a better indicator. Nevertheless, it is necessary to complement the chemical analysis of PAHs by ecotoxicity bioassays which proved to be more sensitive indicators of soil quality. Ecotox-scores calculated from a battery of specifically selected bioassays appear to be a cost-effective and robust method to classify soils according to their toxicity level.

In this study we have examinated the results of two experiments on the uptake and distribution of arsenic (As) in roots, shoots, and grain of wheat grown in As-polluted soils and in an unpolluted soil irrigated with As-contaminated water in absence or presence of phosphorus (P) fertilization. Arsenic concentrations in wheat samples of the two experiments are higher than those in the plants grown on uncontaminated soil. In the experiments showed in this work, it is highlighted the role of P fertilization in preventing As uptake and translocation in wheat plants. These findings could have important implications to reduce the potential risk posed to human health by As entering the food-chain.

In this study we have examinated the results of two experiments on the uptake and distribution of arsenic (As) in roots, shoots, and grain of wheat grown in As-polluted soils and in an unpolluted soil irrigated with As-contaminated water in absence or presence of phosphorus (P) fertilization. Arsenic concentrations in wheat samples of the two experiments are higher than those in the plants grown on uncontaminated soil. In the experiments showed in this work, it is highlighted the role of P fertilization in preventing As uptake and translocation in wheat plants. These findings could have important implications to reduce the potential risk posed to human health by As entering the food-chain.

Smelting activities are one of the most common sources of trace elements in the environment. The aim of this study was to determine the lead distribution in upper horizons (0-5 and 5-10 cm) of acidic soils in the vicinity of a lead-acid battery recycling plant in northern France. The combination of chemical methods (sequential extractions), physical methods (Raman microspectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy with an energy dispersive spectrometer) and multi-surface complexation modelling enabled an assessment of the behaviour of Pb. Regardless of the studied soil, none of the Pb-bearing phases commonly identified in similarly polluted environments (e.g., anglesite) were observed. Lead was mainly associated with organic matter and manganese oxides. The association of Pb with these soil constituents can be interpreted as evidence of Pb redistribution in the studied soils following smelter particle deposition.

A laboratory experiment was carried on the same initial soil and at the same time than a windrow treatment in order to compare results at field and laboratory scales for a soil mainly contaminated with PAHs. After 6 months, laboratory experiments gave similar but less scattered results than those obtained in the field indicating that the field biotreatment was well optimised. The total amount of PAHs degraded after 6 months was ca. 90% and degradation rates followed a negative exponential trend. Relative degradation rates of 3-and 4-ring PAHs were about 32 and 7.2 times greater than those of 5-and 6-ring PAHs, respectively. With respect to the bacterial community, bacteria belonging to Gamma-proteobacteria persisted whereas Beta-proteobacteria appeared after three months of biotreatment when PAH concentration was low enough to render the soil non-ecotoxic. Capsule Comparison of field and laboratory biotreatments of the same PAHcontaminated soil gave similar results with respect to PAH concentration and bacterial diversity.

A laboratory experiment was carried on the same initial soil and at the same time than a windrow treatment in order to compare results at field and laboratory scales for a soil mainly contaminated with PAHs. After 6 months, laboratory experiments gave similar but less scattered results than those obtained in the field indicating that the field biotreatment was well optimised. The total amount of PAHs degraded after 6 months was ca. 90% and degradation rates followed a negative exponential trend. Relative degradation rates of 3-and 4-ring PAHs were about 32 and 7.2 times greater than those of 5-and 6-ring PAHs, respectively. With respect to the bacterial community, bacteria belonging to Gamma-proteobacteria persisted whereas Beta-proteobacteria appeared after three months of biotreatment when PAH concentration was low enough to render the soil non-ecotoxic.

Smelting activities are one of the most common sources of trace elements in the environment. The aim of this study was to determine the lead distribution in upper horizons (0–5 and 5–10 cm) of acidic soils in the vicinity of a lead-acid battery recycling plant in northern France. The combination of chemical methods (sequential extractions), physical methods (Raman microspectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy with an energy dis-persive spectrometer) and multi-surface complexation modelling enabled an assessment of the behaviour of Pb. Regardless of the studied soil, none of the Pb-bearing phases commonly identified in similarly polluted environments (e.g., anglesite) were observed. Lead was mainly associated with organic matter and manganese oxides. The association of Pb with these soil constituents can be interpreted as evidence of Pb redistribution in the studied soils following smelter particle deposition.