Biosorption of heavy metals by some soil fungi

Abstract

The presence and concentration of heavy metals in natural environment is determined newlineby the biogeochemical cycles. Human intervention can greatly modify their newlineconcentration in the environment. The heavy metals are directly released into the newlineenvironment and most of them exhibit health issues if their allowable concentrations newlineexceeds. These metals are non-biodegradable and have a bioaccumulation potentiality newlinewith chronic toxicity associated in the biological systems, even if their concentrations newlineare within limits. Heavy metals are thus one of the most hazardous pollutants and newlinepresent a important environmental newlinechallenge. Though physic-chemical processes newlinehave been used to remove heavy metals from industrial effluents, these conventional newlinetechnologies are less effective and expensive when the heavy metal concentrations newlineexceed 1mg/L. Fortunately, some organisms can affect the mobility and reactivity of newlinemetals and can be used to detoxify some metals thus preventing further metal newlinecontamination. Different eco-friendly strategies to restore contaminated environments newlinehave been explored. These include phytoremediation, bacterial bioremediation and newlinemycoremediation.