Bioremediation in the Marine Environment: Challenges and Prospective Methods for Enhancement

Abstract

Bioremediation is a low-cost, clean, and environmentally friendly method in managing marine pollution. Despite its great potential, marine bioremediation has its own challenges. As an open system, limited nutrients and fluctuating environmental conditions in the ocean affect the metabolism of degrading microorganisms, thus influencing the biodegradation rate. Multiple strategies have been employed to enhance the bioremediation rate at varying degrees of success. This review discusses these strategies from the perspective of experimental studies under controlled conditions and their potential applications for bioremediation. The addition of nutrients or other electron acceptors (biostimulation), as well as competent microbes to the contaminated site (bioaugmentation), have been reported to enhance pollutant degradation rate. Further modifications, such as using immobilized cells and genetic engineering have been employed to enhance the effectiveness of bioaugmentation. It is possible to combine more than one of these strategies to complement each other. However, one should note that all the reports to date were mostly done at the laboratory scale. Further studies need to be conducted by considering other factors such as climate, location, and types of pollutants, for the improvement of pollutant removal from the marine environment as a whole.