Caracterização do elemento químico arsênio e a biorremediação de solos contaminados

Abstract

Arsenic is a major concern for the environment, as its rate of soil contamination is intense, whether in natural processes or by human activities (use of insecticides, herbicides and fertilizers). Bioremediation is a sustainable technique that can be considered safe, less costly and aggressive to the environment and uses microorganisms as a tool for the remediation of soils contaminated by arsenic, in order to reduce or eliminate the degradation of these soils. Given the need for the scientific community to improve its techniques and several companies, especially those related to consulting and environmental remediation, arouse interest in the implementation of bioremediation, as an option for the rehabilitation of contaminated areas. The objective is to elaborate a wide literature review and identify the main characteristics of arsenic soil contamination, using bioremediation. An integrative literature review was applied using the terms Arsenic, Bioremediation and Soil in Portuguese, English and Spanish. We searched the databases Scielo, Pubmed, Academic Google and BDTD using a 10 years time-frame. The review showed that soil contamination with arsenic directly affects the quality of agricultural products, productivity, ecosystem sustainability and biodiversity. It is concluded that the available bioremediation techniques often need to be used together, in order to face the mixture of different toxic components in the same area