Microbial Inoculants-Assisted Phytoremediation for Sustainable Soil Management.

Agricultural soil Pollution refers to its accumulation of heavy metals and related compounds which could be from natural or anthropogenic sources. This threatens food quality, food security and environmental health. The traditional physico-chemical technologies soil washing used for soil remediation render the land useless as a medium for plant growth, as they remove all biological activities. Others are labour intensive and have high maintenance cost. Phytoremediation, sustainable and cheaper in situ remediation techniques was therefore considered. However plants do not have the capability to degrade many soil pollutants especially the organic pollutant. It is therefore imperative to take advantage of the degrading ability of soil microorganisms. This chapter therefore focuses on phytoremediation techniques augmented by microbial inoculants

Particulate organic carbon flux in the oceans-surface productivity and oxygen utilization

Organic detritus passing from the sea surface through the water column to the sea floor controls nutrient regeneration, fuels benthic life and affects burial of organic carbon in the sediment record. Particle trap systems have enabled the first quantification of this important process. The results suggest that the dominant mechanism of vertical transport is by rapid settling of rare large particles, most likely of faecal pellets or marine snow of the order of >200 μm in diameter, whereas the more frequent small particles have an insignificant role in vertical mass flux4–6. The ultimate source of organic detritus is biological production in surface waters of the oceans. I determine here an empirical relationship that predicts organic carbon flux at any depth in the oceans below the base of the euphotic zone as a function of the mean net primary production rate at the surface and depth-dependent consumption. Such a relationship aids in estimating rates of decay of organic matter in the water column, benthic and water column respiration of oxygen in the deep sea and burial of organic carbon in the sediment record