Several investigations have demonstrated the advantageous role that plants have in the phytoremediation of soils and waters contaminated by heavy metals. Therefore, under the present investigation, Chrysopogon zizanioides and Typha latifolia plants were tested for their effectiveness in absorbing 17 heavy metals (Al,

Laboratory and greenhouse experiments with Cyperus laxus Lam were conducted to determine the rate and extent of phytoremediation and the effect of hydrocarbons on the cytochrome P450 EROD (7-ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase) enzymatic activity in roots. Plants were cultivated on hydrocarbon-contaminated soil (HCS) and spiked perlite. Phytoremediation was evaluated using 6.5 kg HCS (173 +/- 15 mg total petroleum hydrocarbons [TPH] g(-1) of dry soil) pots at different moisture contents; the average removal rate was 3.46-0.25 mg TPH g(-1) dry soil month(-1) and 48% was removed when moisture was kept at 60%. The aromatic hydrocarbon fraction was the mostly removed, 60%; aliphatic, 51%; and polar 24% after 24-month experiments. In unplanted pots, TPH concentration did not exhibit significant differences with respect to the initial concentration. We confirmed that the presence of hydrocarbons induced ERODactivity up to 6.5-fold. Moreover, short-term experiments (up to 13 d) with spiked perlite demonstrated that two EROD activities in roots contributed to the total detected; 60% was found in the cytosolic and 40% in the microsomal fraction. To our knowledge, this is the first work that tries to build links between the hydrocarbon-inducible character of ERODactivity in roots and the phytoremediation ability of C. laxus in highly contaminated soils.

One of the great challenges of the environmental diagnoses of soils contaminated with hydrocarbons is the optimization of analytical determinations. For this reason, this chapter evaluates the extraction of hydrocarbons by the Soxhlet method through the design of experiments (DOE), variating three different solvents, three soils, and three extraction times. Soil was experimentally contaminated at different concentrations, and hydrocarbons totals relying on conditions organic matter, electrical conductivity, pH and textures, amount of sample, solvents, and NaSO4, were studied. The variables were evaluated by means of an analysis of the Taguchi design and a factorial design, with the results the significant and optimal parameters of the process were determined, which were solvent type and time (10 hours and dielectric constant of 9). Also, the model discards the soil properties. These results will save time and resources, and they reduce errors.

An overview of current Mexican legislation regarding soil restoration and updating needs is made through the analysis of three case studies located in the southeastern México: a) soil affected by spillage of congenital waters (Zone 1), b) soil contaminated by hydrocarbons (Zone 2) and, c) a site adjacent to urban infrastructure (Zone 3). It was performed a comparative analysis of the soils conditions in the short and long term after the anthropogenic impact and restoration process that were carried out in each studied location. It was found that important properties of the soils do not recover after the weathering process, for instance in Zone 1, DR and DA as well as %Po did not reach equivalent values to the control sample and the soil texture is different even after a long recovery period. For Zone 2, it was detected important variations in the concentration of Ca, Na and K in both the impacted and recovered soils which affect the growth of plantations. In Zone 3, there were found signif icative differences in DA, %Po; %L, %R, %MO and CEC parameters. The current normative considers general aspects, but does not contemplate the actual site situation, there is an information gap due to this, although it was observed achievement of physical and chemical properties for the recovery soil use in each site, it was also noticed that the evaluations do not consider if these properties can change over time due to weather conditions, therefore, they could influence the success of each restoration process in the long term. The information generated can be used to make decisions about government rescue programs for the primary sector or as a starting point in the implementation of Environmental Bases Lines (LBA) for the hydrocarbon sector.

Background: Octopus is a fishery product of economic importance worldwide, the main species caught on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea are Octopus maya and O. vulgaris, the first represents up to 95 % of national production. Goals: Identify the bacterial flora associated with commercial Octopus maya captured in the Yucatan Peninsula, using PCR-DGGE. Methods: From the metagenomic DNAs (mDNAs) extracted from samples representative of the octopus muscle, PCR products were synthesized with universal primers for bacteria (gc338F and 518R) and specific primers for Phylum Firmicutes (FirF: 369 and gcFirR: 1244). They were separated by electrophoresis in denaturing gradient gels (DGGE). The fragmented DNAs were recovered by elution, amplified (338F / 518R and FirF: 369 / FirR: 1244), sequenced and analyzed phylogenetically. Results: The sequences amplified with universal primers, after the DNA fragmentation by DGGE were associated with Psychrobacter urativorans, Psychrobacter sp, Pseudomonas sp, Pseudoalteromonas sp, Shewanella sp, Shewanella baltica, Klebsiella oxytoca, Vibrio aestuarianus, Photobacterium sp, Flavobacterium sp, F. antarcticum, Bizionia sp, Flavobacteriaceae bacterium, Bacillus sp, C. divergens, Cetobacterium somerae, Psychrilyobacter atlanticus, Salinimicrobium sp as well as, Flavobacteriaceae not yet classified. In the sequences amplified with specific primers (Phylum Firmicutes) were identified: Carnobacterium sp, Lactococcus piscium Lactococcus sp, and Vagococcus sp Conclusion: The bacterial genus detected have been reported in samples from marine environments; therefore, can be part of the native microbial diversity associated with commercial O. maya captured in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico.