Recently, the large proliferation in population growth, urbanization, industrialization, and fossil fuel utilization has considerably intensified the concerns about soil and water contamination. Exposure to high levels of toxicants causes severe hazards to human health, ecological systems, natural environment, and food chains. In this context, effective treatment methods have been performed to prevent the deterioration of the soil and water environmental systems. Environmental remediation has been developed to cope with the limitations of conventional physical, chemical, and biological treatment technologies. In this presentation, various remediation techniques including phytoremediation, bioremediation, phycoremediation, and mycoremediation are illustrated. Several mechanisms of phytoremediation, e.g., phytodegradation, phytotransformation, phytoextraction, phytovolatilization, phytostabilization, phytofiltration, phytodesalination, and phytomining that describe the involvement of plant-based technology for toxicants and trace elements elimination are described. The actions of the microbial population during the intrinsic remediation and bioaugmentation processes are demonstrated. The acclimatization assemblage of rhizobacteria in the plant root system to detoxify contaminated soils and transform hazardous compounds into harmless substances is also discussed. Environmental aspects associated with microalgal cultures and fungal species for water and soil remediation are demonstrated. The study purposes are illustrated in the highlight of previous works reported in the literature. Recommendations for future investigations in the field of environmental remediation are proposed.

Keywords: Bioremediation; Contaminated soil; Groundwater; Heavy metals and toxicants; Phytoremediation