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Online ISSN : 2349-8080 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorinchiefijcrbp@gmail.com |
Marine and water ecosystems are increasingly threatened by pollutant-generated toxicants like heavy metals, hydrocarbons, pesticides, drugs, and newer ones like microplastics. These toxicants disrupt the natural equilibrium, reduce biodiversity, and pose severe threats to human health via bioaccumulation and food chain transfer. Bioremediation has proved to be cost-effective, environmentally friendly, and a sustainable measure for mitigating such impacts by leveraging the metabolic capacity of microorganisms, algae, and higher aquatic plants. Enhanced microbial consortia engineering, nano-bioremediation, and omics-based tool utilization have enhanced pollutant degradation efficiency. The present review consolidates current knowledge on pollutant-induced toxicants in aquatic ecosystems, reports on traditional and novel bioremediation techniques, and outlines their ecological effectiveness and limitations. Besides, it identifies areas of gaps in knowledge, compliance challenges, and directions for future integration of bioremediation with advanced biotechnological interventions to guarantee sustainability of ecosystems.
