With the increasing human population, the primary dependence upon the agrarian society to meet the food requirements is at an all-time high. To fulfil these requirements, the dependency of farming community on insecticides and pesticides is no hidden fact. Over the last few decades, the injudicious use of chemical inputs and pesticides has resulted in serious environmental concerns. Moreover, rapid industrialization and other anthropogenic activities such as the unmanaged use of agro-chemicals and dumping of sewage sludge have caused soils and waterways to be severely contaminated with various pollutants like heavy metals, organic pollutants etc. Traditional physical and chemical methods for the clean-up of pollutants are often prohibitively expensive. Perhaps one of the greatest limitations to traditional clean-up methods is the fact that in spite of their high costs, they do not always ensure that contaminants are completely destroyed. As a result, the past two decades have seen a tremendous upsurge in the search for cost-effective and environmentally sound alternatives to traditional methods for dealing with wastes. Of the technologies that have been investigated, bioremediation has emerged as the most desirable approach for cleaning up many environmental pollutants. Bioremediation is an option that offers the possibility to destroy or render harmless various contaminants using natural biological activity.

1. WELCOME
1

2. “ It is the microbes who
will have the last word ”
-Louis Pasteur
2 2

3. “Microbe mediated bioremediation
for ameliorating problematic soils”
Credit Seminar
Speaker: Varun Parmar
Department of Soil Science
CSK HPKV Palampur 3

4. OUTLINE
•Introduction
•Impact of pollutants on soil
•Bioremediation: Types and Mechanisms
•Case Studies
•Conclusion
•Future prospects
4

5. OUTLINE
•Introduction
•Impact of contaminants on soil
•Bioremediation: Types and Mechanisms
•Management strategies
•Conclusion
•Future prospects
5

6. 6
Partition
Food shortage 6

7. 7
GREEN REVOLUTION
High yielding varieties Inorganic Fertilizers and
Pesticides
Area under
farming Improved irrigation facilities 7

8. 50.82
82.02
108.42
129.59
176.39
196.81
244.49
308.65
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
1950-51 1960-61 1970-71 1980-81 1990-91 2000-01 2010-11 2020-21
Food Grain Production (MT)
Source: Directorate of Economics & Statistics (2021) 8

9. CONSUMPTION OF FERTILIZERS AND PESTICIDES IN INDIA
Source : Agriculture statistics (2021), Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine and Storage (2017-18)
2003-04 2007-08 2011-12 2012-13 2015-16 2016-17
41.02 43.63
52.98 52.98 54.12 57.00
Pesticide Consumption (thousand tonnes)
9
0.29 2.18
5.52
12.55
17.36
24.49 26.6 27.3 29.1
Fertilizer Consumption (MT)

10. 10
Industrial refuse
Mining
Domestic waste
Oil spills 10

11. Soil Salinity
11
6.73
2.23
1.37
0.61 0.44 0.38
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
India Gujarat Uttar Pradesh Maharashtra West Bengal Rajasthan
Area
in
Million
Hectare
Area affected by salinity in India
ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute 11

12. The soils which possess characteristics that make them
uneconomical for the cultivation of crops without
adopting proper remediation measures. 12
Mining
Problematic Soils
Excessive use
of pesticides
Domestic
waste Oil spills
Salinity
12

13. TOTAL SITES, 280
PROBABLE SITES, 168
POLLUTED SITES, 112
HAZARDOUS WASTE
LYING AT SITES, 8
PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT, 7
REMEDIATION INITIATED,
14
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
STATES/UT
Polluted Sites in India, Central Pollution Control Board (2020)
13

14. OUTLINE
•Introduction
•Impact of pollutants on soil
•Bioremediation: Types and Mechanisms
•Management strategies
•Conclusion
•Future prospects
14

15. Decrease fertility
Persistence of organic
compounds
Deteriorates physical, chemical
and microbial properties
Accumulation of metals
and ion toxicity
15

16. 16
Wang et al. (2014)
Changchun, China
Effects of Crude Oil Contamination on available Phosphorus
16

17. 17
Dose of oil
(g/m2)
Bulk density
(g cm−3)
Porosity
(%)
Dehydrogenase
(μM TPF kg−1 soil h−1)
50 1.48a ± 0.02 39.5b ± 0.91 25.96c ±1.50
100 1.51ab ± 0.09 38.4ab ± 3.60 19.11b ±1.70
200 1.59b ± 0.04 35.2a ± 1.70 15.93a ±3.01
0 1.42a ± 0.08 41.9b ± 0.80 27.80c ±4.68
Iwan et al. (2015)
Poland
Influence of Oil Contamination on Physical and Biological
Properties of Soil
17

18. Effect of Pendimethalin residue on microbial count
Tamil Nadu Janaki et al. (2019)
Days after Pendimethalin application
18

19. 19
Heavy Metal Concentration of Heavy Metal at Sampling Sites
(mg/kg)
Safety Limits
(mg/kg)
WHO
1 2 3 4 5 6
Lead 57.25 69.17 34.75 19.42 32.33 31.25 10
Chromium 104.62 84.69 77.18 73.53 79.48 83.77 65
Zinc 246.84 196.97 73.23 59.42 73.64 89.23 50
Kaur et al. (2022)
Punjab
Assessment of the Heavy Metal Contamination of
Roadside Soils in Ludhiana
19

20. A world without microbes?
20

21. 21
But what we’d miss….?
21

22. 22
22

23. OUTLINE
•Introduction
•Impact of contaminants on soil
•Bioremediation: Types and Mechanisms
•Management strategies
•Conclusion
•Future prospects
23

24. BIOREMEDIATION
Bios Remediate
Life
To solve a
problem
24

25. 25
Different Remediation Technologies
MYCOREMEDIATION
MICROBIAL BIOREMEDIATION
PHYTOREMEDIATION
25

26. 26
employs the use of living organisms
like bacteria and fungi in the removal
of toxins from soil, water and other
environments.
What is
Bioremed…..?
26

27. Microbes in Bioremediation
Microbe Examples
Bacteria Bacillus
Psuedomonas
Halomonas
Azospirillum
Enterobacter
Arthrobacter
Fungi Funneliformis mosseae
Rhizophagus irregularis
Aspergillus
Penicillium
Trichoderma
Mucor
Vetricillium
27

28. BIOREMEDIATION
In-situ Ex-situ
• Bioventing
• Bioaugmentation
• Biosparging
• Biostimulation
• Land farming
• Biopiling
• Bioreactor
28

29. 29
In-situ
29

30. Bioventing
30

31. Biosparging
31

32. Bioaugmentation
32

33. Biostimulation
33

34. Ex-situ
34

35. 35
Land farming
35

36. 36
Biopiling
36

37. 37
Bioreactor
37

38. MECHANISMS
38

39. Biosorption
39 39

40. Bioaccumulation
40

41. Biotransformation
41 41

42. OUTLINE
•Introduction
•Impact of contaminants on soil
•Bioremediation: Types and Mechanisms
•Case Studies
•Conclusion
•Future prospects
42

43. 0
20
40
60
80
100
120
0 6 9 12
Concentration
(ppm)
Days
Copper
Iron
Control
43
Liang et al. (2015)
China
Bioremediation of heavy metals as mediated by Pseudomonas spp.
43

44. Dehydrogenase activity in oil-contaminated soil
Polyak et al. (2018)
St. Petersburg, Russia 44
44

45. Biodegradation of total petroleum hydrocarbons
Polyak et al. (2018)
St. Petersburg, Russia 45 45

46. 46
Mahajan et al. (2018)
Degradation rate of di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP)
Palampur
46

47. Comparison of oil degradation rates among different
microbial strains
Zhang et al. (2020)
Ji Nan, China 47 47

48. Soil enzyme activity affected by addition of Biochar
and Bacteria
48
Shandong, China Tong et al. (2020)
TREATMENTS
Dehydrogenase
(µg TPF g-1 h -1 )
Invertase
(µg glucose g-1 h -1 )
10 days 60 days 10 days 60 days
Tebuconazole (T) 0.10 ± 0.003 a 0.123 ± 0.004 a 12.6 ± 0.59 a 14.10 ± 0.85 a
T + Strain WZ-2 (S) 0.102 ± 0.01 ab 0.142 ± 0.015 b 13.03 ± 0.61 a 15.62 ± 1.2 ab
T + BC 0.125 ± 0.016 ab 0.138 ± 0.008 b 16.09 ± 0.45 b 16.61 ± 0.44 b
T + BCS 0.128 ± 0.009 b 0.187 ± 0.022 c 15.12 ± 0.63 b 16.94 ± 0.63 b
48

49. Treatments Shoot length (cm) Root length (cm)
Polluted soil 15.37 *o 4.17 *
Biochar remediated soil 18.83 *o 5.21*
Bacteria remediated soil 27.24*o 6.92 o
Bacteria + biochar remediated soil 31.72 *o 6.93 o
* Denotes significant difference with control variant
O Denotes Significant difference with polluted variant
Influence of bio remediation on shoot and root
length of barley
Russia Rajput et al. (2020) 49

50. 0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Cr Pb
Heavy metal accumulation (mg/kg dry wt.) in spring barley under different
soil treatments
Polluted Biochar Bacteria Biochar + Bacteria
Influence of bio remediation on metal accumulation
in barley
Russia Rajput et al. (2020) 50
50

51. 51
Mahajan et al. (2021)
Degradation rate of Prophenophos (PFF)
Shimla
51

52. 52
Mahajan et al. (2021)
Shimla
Possible degradation pathway for Prophenophos (PFF)
52

53. 53
Wang et al. (2021)
China
Effect of mycorrhizal colonisation on shoot and root biomass
53

54. 54
Effect of mycorrhizal colonisation on K+:Na+ ratio
Wang et al. (2021)
China 54

55. OUTLINE
•Introduction
•Impact of contaminants on soil
•Bioremediation: Types and Mechanisms
•Management strategies
•Conclusion
•Future prospects
55

56. • Soils are very important for sustenance of life on this planet, so
maintaining its quality must be our top most priority
• Rapid industrialization and other anthropogenic activities such as
unmanaged use of agro-chemicals, mining, oil spills and dumping of
sewage sludge have caused waterways and soils to be severely
polluted resulting in deterioration of soil physiochemical and
biological properties
CONCLUSION
56

57. • In this context, it is imperative that the we realize the seriousness of
the problem and instigate the remediation of contaminated sites with
environmentally friendly techniques
• There is no doubt that bioremediation is the need of present world
which can lead to preservation of natural resources
• By utilizing various bioremediation techniques such as bio
augmentation, bio stimulation, bioventing, bio sparging, bioreactor,
etc soils can be effectively rendered free from pollutants
57

58. OUTLINE
•Introduction
•Impact of contaminants on soil
•Bioremediation: Types and Mechanisms
•Management strategies
•Conclusion
•Future prospects
58

59. • A comprehensive study on enzyme mechanism and degrading
gene is required to understand the degradation process
• Study microbial interactions
• Find way to transfer remediation ability to non remediating ones
• Generate new economic bio-remediation techniques
FUTURE PROSPECTS
59

60. “ Microorganisms will give you anything
you want if you know how to ask them ”
60

61. 61

62. 62

63. 63

64. Microbial Growth Curve
64