Exploring the use of biomixtures for the removal of structurally different pesticides

SÁEZ, JULIANA MARÍA; BIGLIARDO, ANA LUCÍA; RAIMONDO, ENZO EMANUEL; BRICEÑO MUÑOZ, GABRIELA ELIZABETH; POLTI, MARTA ALEJANDRA; BENIMELI, CLAUDIA SUSANA

Removal of Emerging Contaminants through Microbial Processes

Springer

Año: 2020;

Pesticides are among the most employed compounds worldwide and play an important role in modern agriculture. However, their inadequate management can lead to contamination of the environment. When pesticides enter soils and water bodies, they produce negative impacts on ecosystems through diffuse or point source contamination. The last comprises processes like improper handling or leaks of spraying liquid, remnants, and washes of the spraying equipment, and they can be controlled by agricultural good practices.In the last decades, with the objectives of reducing pesticide point source pollution, biobeds, or biopurification systems (BPS) were developed as promising and low-cost technologies. They consist of three main components: a clay layer at the bottom; a biomixture; and a grass layer at the surface. The biomixture is the biologically active core of a BPS and it is composed of three elements that play important roles in the adsorption and degradation of pesticides: a lignocellulosic substrate, a humic rich component, and soil. Since half of the biomixture consists of lignocellulosic substrates, several studies have evaluated the bioaugmentation of biomixtures with ligninolytic fungi obtaining satisfactory results on pesticide removal. Also, the bioaugmentation of BPS with pesticide-degrading bacteria represents a promising approach in the design and optimization of these systems. This chapter is a short compilation regarding the application of BPS as biotechnological tools for the removal of pesticides. A special emphasis is put on the bioaugmentation of these systems with ligninolytic fungi and/or pesticides-degrading bacteria to obtain optimal biodegradation of structurally diverse pesticides.