It’s been estimated that around 24 billion tonnes of fertile topsoil is lost each year due to historic and ongoing pollution. With increasing pressure placed upon land as a resource, there is an urgent need to make better use of existing agricultural land, as well as remediate contaminated land for farming use.
Contaminants in agricultural soils: Challenges and solutions provides a comprehensive overview of the major types of contaminants in agricultural soils. It considers key issues in dealing with contaminants such as advances in detection and risk assessment. The book also reviews recent advances in bioremediation and phytoremediation techniques to manage contaminants in soils.
- Reviews the main types of contaminants in agricultural soils, such as heavy metals, pesticide residues and petroleum hydrocarbon waste products, per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contaminants
- Explores bioremediation techniques such as the use of soil amendments and additives
- Covers techniques such as phyto-stabilisation and phyto-extraction
This book reviews current research on the key types of contaminants in agricultural soils, including heavy metals, antibiotic and pesticide residues, as well as recent advances in bioremediation and phytoremediation techniques to manage these contaminants.
Part 1 Types of contaminants in agricultural soils
1.Petroleum hydrocarbon waste product contaminants in agricultural soils:
Mentore Vaccari, University of Brescia, Italy;
2.Heavy metal contaminants in agricultural soils: Ganga Hettiarachichi,
Kansas State University, USA;
3.Per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) as contaminants in agricultural
soils: Linda Lee, Purdue University, USA;
4.Pesticide residues as contaminants in agricultural soils: Vera Felix da
Graca Silva, Wageningen University, The Netherlands;
5.Antibiotic residues as contaminants in agricultural soils: Nikola Rakonjac,
Wageningen University, The Netherlands;
6.Wastewater as a contamination risk for agricultural soils: Guy Levy,
Volcani Institute Agricultural Research Organisation, Israel;
Part 2 Remediation techniques
7.Advances in analytical techniques for detecting contaminants in soils:
Liang Wang, University of Newcastle, Australia;
8.Advances in risk assessment of contaminated agricultural soils: Ayanka
Wijayawardena, University of Newcastle, Australia;
9.Bioremediation: advances in using soil organic amendments to control
contaminants in agricultural soils: Gerhard Soja, University of Natural
Resources and Life Sciences, Austria;
10.Bioremediation: advances in bioremediation additives to control
contaminants in agricultural soils: Bhaba Biswas, University of Newcastle,
Australia;
11.Phytoremediation: advances in soil contaminant
phyto-stabilisation/immobilisation using vegetative cover: Paula Alvarenga,
University of Lisbon, Portugal;
12.Phytoremediation: advances in soil contaminant phyto-extraction by
accumulator and hyper-accumulator plants: David Leung, Unversity of
Canterbury, New Zealand;
13.Managing contaminants in farmed soils: case studies from China: Fang Wang,
Institute of Soil Science Chinese Academy of Sciences, China;
Dr Ravi Naidu is Professor in the College of Engineering Science and Environment and Founding Director of the Global Centre for Environmental Remediation (GCER) at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He is also Chief Executive Officer, Managing Director and Chief Scientist of the Cooperative Research Centre for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment (crcCARE). Professor Naidu is also Chair of the UN FAO International Network on Soil Pollution (INSOP) and Chair of the CleanUp Conference Series. Amongst other honours he received the 2022 Mahatma Gandhi Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award and Medal and the 2023 European Geosciences Union Alina Kabata-Pendias Medal. His election as a Fellow of Australian Academy of Science Technology and Engineering, New Zealand Academy of Science and Indian Academy of Agricultural Science reflects his outstanding scientific contribution. With over 850 journal publications, he is a Web of Science Globally Highly-Cited Researcher in soil contamination and remediation research.
