Role of Archaea in the Remediation of Contaminated Soils (Chapter 2)

Abstract

Bioremediation has emerged as an effective and alternative method of treating contaminated soils, and it mainly depends on microorganisms. Besides bacteria, archaea can also be used for the remediation purpose to remove hydrocarbons, because archaea can work in very harsh conditions, such as halophilic and acidophilic environments. The industries, which release their effluents with heavy metals (HMs) in soil, rivers, or ocean, can use Archaea for pre-treatment of waste effluents. In the present chapter, the use of various Archaeal domain organisms in remediation of contaminated natural resources has been discussed.