The pollution of the environment is a pressing global challenge. Biomonitoring of soil, water and air pollution using plants is a cost-effective, sustainable, and easy-to-use approach. Hyperaccumulator plants can be used in eco-friendly bioremediation technologies and to recover useful elements from the environment. Despite the high number of studies on metal uptake by plants and the effects of pollutants on plants, the number of ready-to-use technologies for bioremediation and biomining is limited. The mechanisms involved in the pollutant's uptake and translocation and their enhancement by different methods are not well understood; therefore, further investigations are necessary.For the efficient monitoring of pollution, eco-friendly, low-cost, sustainable, and highly accurate methods are needed. A possible approach that could fulfill all these criteria is using plants for pollution biomonitoring, as they act as pollution integrators over long periods. Polluted sites need to be cleaned and restored, and if possible, the useful elements should be recovered from these sites. Different plant species were found to be suitable for all these processes, yet there are no ready-to-use methods or standardized approaches available. This Research Topic intends to gather different research that could shed light on the recent developments in biomonitoring, bioremediation and biomining to overcome the knowledge gap necessary to upscale the results of promising lab scale or field studies, as well as to highlight the associated challenges and opportunities.This Research Topic aims to explore the use of different plant species to biomonitor environmental pollution, recover valuable elements from the environment and bioremediate the environment. We welcome manuscripts dealing with, but not limited to:- Advances in the use of plants in biomonitoring of environmental pollution- Mechanisms involved in and factors that influence the environment to plant transfer of pollutants - Development in the use of plants in biomining- Recovery of economically valuable elements from plants- Challenges in developing easy-to-use, cost-effective bioremediation methods
The pollution of the environment is a pressing global challenge. Biomonitoring of soil, water and air pollution using plants is a cost-effective, sustainable, and easy-to-use approach. Hyperaccumulator plants can be used in eco-friendly bioremediation technologies and to recover useful elements from the environment. Despite the high number of studies on metal uptake by plants and the effects of pollutants on plants, the number of ready-to-use technologies for bioremediation and biomining is limited. The mechanisms involved in the pollutant's uptake and translocation and their enhancement by different methods are not well understood; therefore, further investigations are necessary.For the efficient monitoring of pollution, eco-friendly, low-cost, sustainable, and highly accurate methods are needed. A possible approach that could fulfill all these criteria is using plants for pollution biomonitoring, as they act as pollution integrators over long periods. Polluted sites need to be cleaned and restored, and if possible, the useful elements should be recovered from these sites. Different plant species were found to be suitable for all these processes, yet there are no ready-to-use methods or standardized approaches available. This Research Topic intends to gather different research that could shed light on the recent developments in biomonitoring, bioremediation and biomining to overcome the knowledge gap necessary to upscale the results of promising lab scale or field studies, as well as to highlight the associated challenges and opportunities.This Research Topic aims to explore the use of different plant species to biomonitor environmental pollution, recover valuable elements from the environment and bioremediate the environment. We welcome manuscripts dealing with, but not limited to:- Advances in the use of plants in biomonitoring of environmental pollution- Mechanisms involved in and factors that influence the environment to plant transfer of pollutants - Development in the use of plants in biomining- Recovery of economically valuable elements from plants- Challenges in developing easy-to-use, cost-effective bioremediation methods