BIOREMEDIATION

 Bio-remediation-Bacteria Clean Up Pollution

Although many bacteria have dietary requirements similar 10 ours that's why they cause food spoilage-others metabolism (or chemically process) substances that are toxic to most plants and animals: heavy metals, sulfur, nitrogen gas, petroleum, and mercury.

Bacteria that can degrade many pollutants are naturally present in soil and water but in such small numbers that they cannot deal with large-scale contamination efficiently. Scientists are now working to improve the efficiency of natural pollution fighters. Using bacteria to degrade pollutants is called bioremediation

 

One of the most promising successes for bio remediation occurred on an Alaskan beach following the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Several naturally occurring Pseudomonas bacteria are able to degrade oil for there

carbon and energy requirements. In the presence of air, they remove two carbon atoms at a time from a large petroleum molecule

 

Another group of bacteria is being investigated for its ability to clean up mercury contamination. Mercury is present in such common substances as discarded paint and fluorescent bulbs and can leach into soil and water from garbage dumps. Desulfovibrio desulfuricans bacteria actually make the mercury more dangerous by adding a methyl group. convening it into highly toxic methyl mercury. Methyl mercury in ponds or marshes sticks to small organisms such as plankton, which are eaten by larger organisms, which in tum are eaten by fish. Fish and human poisonings have been attributed to the ingestion of methyl mercury.

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