Phytoremediation: an alternative tool towards clean and green environment

Wetlands being the most productive and ecologically sensitive and adaptive ecosystems are constantly being challenged with anthropogenic pressures due to their wide variety of services they provide to mankind. The vast expansions of human population and associated activities have put a tremendous amount of pressure on these naturally occurring resources. Uncontrolled discharge of effluents in water from various sources resulted into altered nature of the associated ecosystems giving rise to several health issues and problems. Hence, realising the urgent need of protecting these ecologically fragile ecosystems several adaptive measures have been taken. In this connection, it is found that the available conventional methods are not feasible on various grounds like their cost, their by-products, time frame, etc. Therefore, the use of plants emerged as the alternative and promising tool for safe and sustainable ecosystem supporting life.Sandhya Misra, and Krishna G. Misra

The role of marine anaerobic bacteria and archaea in bioenergy production

The development of products from marine bioresources is gaining importance in the biotechnology sector. The global market for Marine Biotechnology products and processes was, in 2010, estimated at 2.8 billion with a cumulative annual growth rate of 510% (Børresen et al., Marine biotechnology: a new vision and strategy for Europe. Marine Board Position Paper 15. Beernem: Marine Board-ESF, 2010). Marine Biotechnology has the potential to make significant contributions towards the sustainable supply of food and energy, the solution of climate change and environmental degradation issues, and the human health. Besides the creation of jobs and wealth, it will contribute to the development of a greener economy. Thus, huge expectations anticipate the global development of marine biotechnology. The marine environment represents more than 70% of the Earths surface and includes the largest ranges of temperature, light and pressure encountered by life. These diverse marine environments still remain largely unexplored, in comparison with terrestrial habitats. Notwithstanding, efforts are being done by the scientific community to widespread the knowledge on oceans microbial life. For example, the J. Craig Venter Institute, in collaboration with the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and Scripps Institution of Oceanography have built a state-of-the-art computational resource along with software tools to catalogue and interpret microbial life in the worlds oceans. The potential application of the marine biotechnology in the bioenergy sector is wide and, certainly, will evolve far beyond the current interest in marine algae. This chapter revises the current knowledge on marine anaerobic bacteria and archaea with a role in bio-hydrogen production, syngas fermentation and bio-electrochemical processes, three examples of bioenergy production routes.(undefined