Phytoremediation and Plant-Assisted Bioremediation in Soil and Treatment Wetlands: A Review

Phytoremediation is a technology that is based on the combined action of plants and their associated microbial communities to degrade, remove, transform, or immobilize toxic compounds located in soils, sediments, and more recently in polluted ground water and wastewater in treatment wetlands. Phytoremediation could be used to treat different types of contaminants including petroleum hydrocarbons, chlorinated solvents, pesticides, explosives, heavy metals and radionuclides in soil and water. The advantages of phytoremediation compared to conventional techniques are lower cost, low disruptiveness to the environment, public acceptance, and potentiality to remediate various pollutants. The use …