Challenges in bioremediation: from lab to land

Abstract Bioremediation is an age old technology, used widely as the green route to control environmental pollutants. However, success stories from lab to land as not so common. The major challenges in taking lab-scale research into the field are the lacunae in understanding microbial processes at the polluted niche, bioavailability of the pollutant, survival of non-native species and lack of integrated multi-disciplinary approach.Most studies developed with pure culture techniques ignore the microbial population at the target niche, which dictates the efficiency of biodegradation. A Metagenomics approach harnesses the microbial community intelligence of any niche and paves the way to formulating a successful bioremediation approach, that could use bioaugmentation or biostimulation / ex-situ or in-situ treatment. Bioaugmentation will require study of survival of non-native species into any niche. In most cases, the route of bioaugmentation requires multiple inoculations depending on survival rate. Supplying nutrients and / or a microbial inocula across large areas of the polluted nice requires integration with innovative engineering tools. Remote sensing and GIS based mapping of sites require integration to help assess the extent of damage and understand the spatial and temporal variations of a contaminated site. A successful bbioremediationstrategy needs to integrate the tools of many disciplines.