Phytoremediatiation of Metal and Metalloid Pollutants from Farmland: An In-Situ Soil Conservation

Abstract

Phytoremediation is an effective technology for in-situ remediation of high level polluted soils. Phytoremediation is a plant-mediated approach, which involves the use of plants to absorb and remove elemental pollutants or lower their concentration or bioavailability to soil. Plants have efficacy to absorb compounds in the soil even at low concentration through their root system. Plant root system has geotropism which helps them to extend into the soil matrix and hyper accumulate heavy metals to increase their bioavailability considerably and thereby the polluted soil is domesticated and the soil fertility is enhanced. The heavy-metal-resistant endophytes give the promising effect on plant growth, by decreasing metal phytotoxicity and affecting metal translocation and accumulation in plants. It is an eye opening for researches to implement the phytoremediation of organic contaminants through endophytes that produce various enzymes to metabolize organic contaminants and reduce both the phytotoxicity and evapotranspiration of volatile contaminants. Here, we focus on the most widely used phytoremediation strategies, phytostabilization, phytoextraction, phytovolatilization, and phytofiltration in the remediation of heavy metal-polluted soil.