The first objective of this study was to provide data of arsenic (As) levels in Peninsular Malaysia based on soil samples and accumulation of As in Centella asiatica collected from 12 sampling sites in Peninsular Malaysia. The second objective was to assess the accumulation of As in transplanted C. asiatica between control and semi-polluted or polluted sites. Four sites were selected which were...

The aim of this work is to present a critical review on slurry bioreactors (SB) and their application to bioremediation of soils and sediments polluted with recalcitrant and toxic compounds. The scope of the review encompasses the following subjects: (i) process fundamentals of SB and analysis of advantages and disadvantages; (ii) the most recent applications of SB to laboratory scale and comme...

To understand the toxicity of Pb-polluted shooting fields, oribatid mites Platynothrus peltifer were exposed to shooting field soils containing 47-2398 mg Pb/kg dry weight (DW) and having pH(CaCl2) 3.2-6.8 and 3.8-13% organic matter (OM). Exposures also included artificial soils with different pH and OM contents as well as two natural soils used as controls. Exposures lasted for 2 (acute) and 1...

The influence of the nonionic surfactant Brij 35 on biodegradation of slowly desorbing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) was determined in contaminated soils. We employed a soil originated from a creosote-polluted site, and a manufactured gas plant soil that had been treated by bioremediation. The two soils differed in their total content in five indicator 3-, 4-, and 5-ring PAHs (2923 mg...

ABSTRACT The establishment and growth of trees can be compromised by soil contamination which can reduce populations of key microbial symbionts. We describe the colonisation of grey alder (Alnus incana) by Frankia from 10 urban soils with varying degrees of organic and inorganic pollution. Principal components analysis (PCA) of soil chemical profiles showed a separation of remediated and unreme...

To assess the problems posed by ecological testing of the toxicity of polluted soils, we applied the Collembola reproduction test to the soil from a mining site polluted by metals. Our aim was to quantify the chronic toxicity of contaminated soil using the Folsomia candida reproduction test. Briefly, the polluted soil, which contains in particular large quantities of arsenic, is mixed in variou...

Remediation of two polluted soils from a northern Italian industrial site heavily contaminated with organic contaminants was attempted here by subjecting soils first to addition with an exogenous humic acid (HA), and, then, to an oxidation reaction catalyzed by a water-soluble iron-porphyrin (FeP). An expected decrease of detectable organic pollutants (>50%) was already observed when soils were...

The soils affected by the spill of a pyrite mine were analysed in 100 sampling points at three depths (0-10, 10-30, and 30-50 cm) in 1998 (after the tailings were removed), 1999 (after the cleaning of the highly contaminated areas), and 2004 (after the tilling of the upper 20-25 cm). The comparative study reveals that the removal of the tailings left a heterogeneous distribution pattern of the ...