Bioremediation
A biotechnology that is changing the world day by day
What is bioremediation?
It is a waste management skill that removes negative parts of ecosystems by either introducing good bacteria or spreading the minimal good bacteria to more places in the ecosystem
Types of bioremediation
Microbial Remediation
This type uses microorganisms to break down contaminated areas for food.It is done by creating a perfect bacteria habitat in the area or by putting a lot of good bacteria into an area at once. It is used most of the time in soil.
Phythoremediation
This type uses plants' natural abilities to help kill off contaminated areas and transform them altogether.It works better in areas with a little bit or a medium amount of pollution. It also helps stop the contaminants from spreading into another area. It is used in flowers like the sunflower.
Mycoremediation
This type uses fungi which are the decomposers of nature by destroying bit by bit of healthy plants or other healthy parts of the environment. This helps put healthy nutrients into the ground which scientifically cancels out the bad bacteria fixing the ecosystem. It is used in fungi like mushrooms.
History of bioremediation
Bioremediation has happened throughout the earth's history but scientists started to learn how to control it starting from the 1940s. But in history, the creator of the exact process,George M. Robinson, discovered it in the '60s. Another important person was Ananda Chakrabarty. His work of how bacteria worked with factors in oil led to the event that gave this method international recognition, the Exxon Valdez incident of 1989. After that many scientists began to study it expanding the boundaries of its possibilities.
Problems and solutions of bioremediation
Many people believe that by nature it isn't right to alter DNA that has already existed. Also it has been found that in certain areas it doesn't work or it has been possible that it could worsen the condition of the ecosystem. Though even with these problems and disagreements with this biotechnology it is still the most safe and reliable way to do this process
Breakthroughs in bioremediation
Even though it hasn't been as long researched as other biotechnologies, scientists have still discovered many new things about remediation. For example, they have found out new methods of bioremediation that they have thought before would have been too dangerous to the ecosystem like directed evolution and rational design. Directed evolution is a process that was previously been used in protein engineering that evolves main nutrients at a faster speed. Rational design is when scientists create special molecules based on the environmental condition of an ecosystem.
Bibliography
http://earthrepair.ca/resources/bioremediation-types/
http://andrewtle2011.wix.com/bioremediation#!HISTORY%20OF%20BIOREMEDIATION/zoom/ct3v/i01r33
http://infohouse.p2ric.org/ref/14/0_initiatives/init/winter98/images/Arrows.gif
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014102290500126
http://webpage.pace.edu/dnabirahni/rahnidocs/Envsc/Bioremediation%20Methods%20for%20Oil%20Spills.doc
http://www.synbiocyc.org/wiki/images/thumb/6/6c/Ja-2012-12032c_0001.gif/350px-Ja-2012-12032c_0001.