Abstract
The widespread use of agricultural chemicals has dramatically increased crop production while simultaneously controlling disease vectors associated with pest vectors for more than half of a century. While the use of these pesticides differs by region, the current levels of use, due to exponential population increase, have led to the contamination of groundwater, surface water, and soils worldwide. Pesticides and the associated residues have led to significant contamination of entire terrestrial ecosystems potentially leading to loss of diversity associated with bio-concentration of aquatic systems. Many of these pesticide pollutants are toxic to humans and even accumulate and transfer vertically through food webs leading to a litany of health problems. The removal of these pollutants through microalgal bioremediation has proven to be efficient, inexpensive, and environmentally friendly. In this chapter, we review the common industrial, agricultural, and domestic pesticides leading to soil and water contamination while outlining a variety of remediation approaches to treating these wastewaters. Furthermore, this chapter includes a discussion on the factors affecting both bioaccumulation and biodegradation efficiencies, including limitations, as associated with approach, environment, and microbial consortium.
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McLellan, J., Gupta, S.K., Kumar, M. (2019). Feasibility of Using Bacterial-Microalgal Consortium for the Bioremediation of Organic Pesticides: Application Constraints and Future Prospects. In: Gupta, S.K., Bux, F. (eds) Application of Microalgae in Wastewater Treatment. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13913-1_16
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