Microbial technology with major potentials for the urgent environmental needs of the next decades

Abstract

SummarySeveral needs in the context of the water–energy–food nexus will become more prominent in the next decades. It is crucial to delineate these challenges and to find opportunities for innovative microbial technologies in the framework of sustainability and climate change. Here, we focus on four key issues, that is the imbalance in the nitrogen cycle, the diffuse emission of methane, the necessity for carbon capture and the deterioration of freshwater reserves. We suggest a set of microbial technologies to deal with each of these issues, such as (i) the production of microbial protein as food and feed, (ii) the control of methanogenic archaea and better use of methanotrophic consortia, (iii) the avoidance of nitrification and (iv) the upgrading of CO2 to microbial bioproducts. The central message is that instead of using crude methods to exploit microorganisms for degradations, the potentials of the microbiomes should be used to create processes and products that fit the demands of the cyclic market economy.

The urgent need for microbiology literacy in society

“…https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld). A recent issue of Microbial Biotechnology () explored the range of microbial technologies that are contributing/show potential to contribute to attainment of SDGs, including those that can ameliorate problems of food supply for a continuously growing world population (Garcia et al, ; Trivedi et al, ), of greenhouse gas production, global warming and some of its negative consequences, of global pollution, and to maximize exploitation of renewables and sustainability of world consumption of natural resources, and so forth (e.g., de Lorenzo, ; Verstraete and de Vrieze, ). This issue also addressed the exceptional potential of microbial biotechnology for another SDG, namely sustainable economic growth and employment creation , relating to new enterprises, employment and wealth, in part in the context of the Bioeconomy (Timmis et al, ), but also in other contexts.…”

Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria as an Effective Tool for Sustainable Acid Mine Bioremediation

“…Hence the need to engage more efficient processes for higher removal rate of sulfate and heavy metals and the need to control microorganism by means of coordinated approach. By and large, understanding of the basics of microbial groups in key processes will be significant in handling important environmental challenges ( Verstraete and De Vrieze, 2017 ).…”

Microbial Resources, Fermentation and Reduction of Negative Externalities in Food Systems: Patterns toward Sustainability and Resilience

“…In association with food production, it is possible to highlight several significant negative externalities, 'namely effects on the environment, the economy and the society that are not reflected in the cost of food' [16]. These include the release of CO 2 and other greenhouse gases, increase of wastes and pollution, contamination of freshwater, enhanced water deficiencies, soil depletion, a decrease of biological diversity, reduced benefits of microbiomes, the market of unsafe products, diffused antibiotic resistance, lessening of the supply for selected consumers groups, lastly whether the production is foster the rise of socioeconomic disparities [16][17][18][19][20]. Taken together, these undesirable trends threaten food security (Figure 2), human health, environmental resources, and economic networks, especially if we consider future generations.…”

“…[38,39] Beneficial plant-microbe interactions to breed 'microbe-optimized plants' [32] Microalgae and new application in food, feed, and nutraceuticals chains [40,41] Microbial-based tailored solutions for sustainable feeding regimen [42] As reported in the scientific literature, it is possible to find so many examples as to suggest a potential systemic application of microbes as mitigating agents in the primary production. In several cases, the target is the 'remediation' of negative trends: microorganisms selected to reduce carbon dioxide [19,22], bioconversion of pollutants in water via microbial [19,26,27], microbial-driven bioremediation of soil [28,29], and microbial-based decomposition of endocrine disruptors from trophic chains [22]. In addition, we can find 'green' microbial alternatives to standard solutions, such as substitute to antibiotic [35][36][37], pesticides [32,34], fertilizers/stimulants [32,33], feeding regimen [42], nitrogen sources [19], protein production [19,25], and to make water potable [30,31].…”