Bibliometric Analysis of Hydrocarbon Bioremediation in Cold Regions and a Review on Enhanced Soil Bioremediation

Abstract

The increased usage of petroleum oils in cold regions has led to widespread oil pollutants in soils. The harsh environmental conditions in cold environments allow the persistence of these oil pollutants in soils for more than 20 years, raising adverse threats to the ecosystem. Microbial bioremediation was proposed and employed as a cost-effective tool to remediate petroleum hydrocarbons present in soils without significantly posing harmful side effects. However, the conventional hydrocarbon bioremediation requires a longer time to achieve the clean-up standard due to various environmental factors in cold regions. Recent biotechnological improvements using biostimulation and/or bioaugmentation strategies are reported and implemented to enhance the hydrocarbon removal efficiency under cold conditions. Thus, this review focuses on the enhanced bioremediation for hydrocarbon-polluted soils in cold regions, highlighting in situ and ex situ approaches and few potential enhancements via the exploitation of molecular and microbial technology in response to the cold condition. The bibliometric analysis of the hydrocarbon bioremediation research in cold regions is also presented.

Diversity and Hydrocarbon-Degrading Potential of Deep-Sea Microbial Community from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, South of the Azores (North Atlantic Ocean)

“…The high hydrophobicity and low solubility of hydrocarbon pollutants contribute to their accumulation in the marine sediments [3,4]. Oil contamination may have a greater impact on more sensitive environments, such as cold marine areas, where the harsh conditions lower the rate of natural attenuation, allowing the petroleum pollutants to persist more than 20 years in marine soil, permafrost, and deep-sea waters [5,6], raising problematic environmental concerns.…”

Microbial Communities of Seawater and Coastal Soil of Russian Arctic Region and Their Potential for Bioremediation from Hydrocarbon Pollutants

“…Climate features impede the use of physical, thermal, and chemical purification methods [ 2 ]. In this regard, there has been a significant increase in interest in environmentally safe and economical biological methods for the remediation of Arctic soils and water basins from oil pollution [ 3 , 4 , 5 ]. Biostimulation and bioaugmentation biotechnologies are widely used for the bioremediation of polluted habitats [ 2 , 6 ].…”

“…The argument in favor of the use of biostimulation is that natural microorganisms are initially well adapted to the conditions of their environment. However, under Arctic conditions, the application of bioremediation methods faces additional difficulties [ 4 , 7 , 8 ]. Microorganisms living in high-latitude Arctic and Antarctic regions, along with low temperatures, can simultaneously experience several stressors.…”

“…Microorganisms living in high-latitude Arctic and Antarctic regions, along with low temperatures, can simultaneously experience several stressors. Soil microbial communities face a shortage of nitrogen and phosphorus, slightly acidic conditions, and low rainfall in summer [ 4 , 9 , 10 ]. The microbiota of Arctic marine areas lives in a high salinity of sea water, in slightly alkaline conditions and under a varying content of dissolved oxygen [ 3 ].…”

Current Knowledge and Future Challenges on Bacterial Degradation of the Highly Complex Petroleum Products Asphaltenes and Resins

“…This concept has been explored and exploited in the removal of oil contaminants including aliphatics, MAHs and PAHs. Indeed, bioremediation or real life removal of oil pollutants by biodegradation has been carried out in various contaminated environments, including seawater, soil, groundwater (Farhadian et al, 2008;Scoma et al, 2016;Koshlaf and Ball, 2017;Davoodi et al, 2020;Mafiana et al, 2021;Sayed et al, 2021;Yap et al, 2021). In addition the mechanisms of degradation of aliphatics, MAHs and PAHs have been extensively studies and readers are referred to the following reviews on this topic (Haritash and Rojo, 2009;Seo et al, 2009;Meckenstock and Mouttaki, 2011;Nzila, 2018aNzila, , 2018bDhar et al, 2020;Nzila and Musa, 2020).…”