Fungal Soil Bioremediation: Developments Towards Large-Scale Applications

Abstract

Fungal soil bioremediation is a promising technique to clean up soil contaminated with organic compounds. The development towards large-scale applications has been slow and expensive, ongoing for almost three decades. Today feasible applications have been tested but they are still not largely in use. Fungal remediation techniques rely not only on suitable organisms obtained through screening but also on their inoculation and their interaction with natural soil microflora. Modern techniques utilize the strong abilities of fungi, e.g. to degrade larger and more recalcitrant molecules, and combine them with the natural ability of the soil microflora to handle part of the cleaning process. In an example perforated tubes are filled with fungal bark inoculum, added to piles with contaminated soil to initiate and support degradation.