Impacts of Hazardous Waste on Soil Health

Abstract

Soil, a natural medium for plant growth, provides the anchorage to the plants and supplies various nutrients required for the plant growth. It is an important ecosystem that not only provides the shelter to various organisms but also participates directly or indirectly in various biogeochemical cycles. However, in recent years, the earth's soil has been stripped away, rendered sterile, and contaminated with toxic chemicals due to various anthropogenic activities. This increasing wide spread pollution has caused vast areas of land to become non-arable and hazardous for both wildlife and human populations. Unlike many other organic pollutants, which are degraded in the soils, some of the hazardous compounds like heavy metals, pesticides, polycyclic aromatic compounds, and phthalates are of special concern as most of these are conserved. The presence of such compounds in soil ecosystem causes severe toxicity and imbalances in the soil ecosystem as a whole. The chapter focuses on various sources of soil pollutants and the effects of hazardous compounds on soil health.