Air Pollution And Plant Biotechnology

Air pollution is ubiquitous in industrialized societies, causing a host of environmental problems. It is thus essential to monitor and reduce pollution levels. A number of plant species already are being exploited as detectors (for phytomonitoring) and as scavengers (for phytoremediation) of air pollutants. With advances in biotechnology, it is now feasible to modify plants for a wider range of phytomonitoring and phytoremediation applications. Air Pollution and Plant Biotechnology presents recent results in this field, including plant responses during phytomonitoring, pollution-resistant plant species, imaging diagnosis of plant responses, and the use of novel transgenic plants, along with reviews of basic plant physiology and biochemistry where appropriate. Researchers and students working in plant biotechnology and the environmental sciences or considering new areas of investigation will find this volume a valuable reference.

This book reviews current topics on plant metabolism of air pollutants and elevated CO2, responses of whole plants and plant ecosystems, genetics and molecular biology for functioning improvement, experimental ecosystems and climate change research, global carbon-cycle monitoring in plant ecosystems, and other important issues. The authors, conducting research in Europe, the United States, Australia, and East Asia, present a wealth of information on their work in the field.

The main impetus for climate change is the elevated concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. Plant metabolism of CO2 and air pollutants and gas fluxes in plant ecosystems influence global gas cycles as well. This book includes topics on plant metabolism of air pollutants and elevated CO2, responses of whole plants and plant ecosystems, and more.

Here is the first book on biotechnological processes for controlling odor and air pollution emanating from industrial and municipal airstreams. Authors from academia and industry describe biotechnological methods ranging from those in laboratory stages to pilot evaluation to full-scale process implementation. In addition to the basic microbiology and engineering, the design, modeling, and control of bioreactors are discussed in detail.

The book has 2 sections; Section A focuses on Environmental Sustainability and Green Technology and Section B covers Emerging Technologies in Environmental Biotechnology. The book introduces Environmental biotechnology as a tool to progress towards sustainable development goals and covers green technologies such as Bio-plastics, Third generation hybrid technology for algal biomass production, wastewater treatment and greenhouse gas mitigation, Green vaccination, Bio-fuels, Microbial enzymes, Bioelectrical systems, eco-friendly handmade paper production, nature based sanitation solutions, and greener ways to tackle air pollution along with the application of GIS to monitor & manage COVDI19 pandemic. The Section B covers emerging & innovative technologies such as vermifiltration, Small scale PVA gel based innovative solution for wastewater treatment, Cyclic technology based sequencing batch reactors (SBR) and role of Role of Bio-selectors in Performing Simultaneous Nitrification and Denitrification in SBR’s. It holistically covers essential information on Enzymatic Biotransformation and Biopolymer based nanocomposites for dye waste treatment, Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi assisted Bioremediation of heavy metals, Coir Retting and Duckweeds: The Tiny Creatures for Resolving the Major Environmental Issues. It is a promising book for researchers, academicians, teachers, students, industrial enterprises, policy makers, public health officials and general users. The book is closely aligned to curricula of post graduate courses in biotechnology, microbiology, environmental biotechnology and environmental science.

This book embodies twenty four chapters. The methodology of tools and techniques has been given due place in these chapters. Figures, illustrations and examples are presented to elucidate the topics making the subject more interesting and knowledge-rich. The book covers a wide range of topics like phyto and microbial diversity; medical microbiology; application of plant tissue culture techniques, bioinfor-matics, bioprospecting and synthetic seed technology, etc in the study of biodiversity and its management. Further, topics such as transgenics, bioremediation, waste utilization and role of single cell proteins, biopesticides, organic farming, scope of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), biotechnological approach of curbing air pollutants, air pollution biomonitoring, sericulture, pharmacognosy, characterization of biodiversity through molecular approach, etc have also been covered in this book. Biodiversity and its management have roots in cultural practices and diversity, besides traditional knowledge.

The study of air pollution effects on vegetation has made rapid progress in the last five years. Growing concerns about effects of future increases in temperature and carbon dioxide (C0 ) levels on plant life have altered 2 the perspective of plant biologists in the field of pollutant-plant inter actions. In many cases, it is anticipated that crops and trees will increasingly experience multiple stresses in an altered environment: an environment in which physiological processes will no longer be matched to climate. Because of this problem, a major part of the focus of the air pollution effects research has shifted since 1987. Moreover, recent advances in our understanding of plant metabolic and molecular responses to stress have made it clear that many abiotic stresses elicit similar fundamental mechanisms. Adaptation responses to drought, extremes of temperature, xenobiotics and air pollutants are now known to involve the response of both specific and common resistance mechanisms, which often include altered gene expression. The field of air pollution effects on vegetation has benefitted greatly from this unification since results obtained and advances made in allied fields are now directly relevant. The advent of molecular genetics has made possible the production of transgenic plants containing altered amounts of resistance gene products which enables the posing of experimental questions which could not be addressed only five years ago. Hypotheses concerning the relevance of specific metabolites and processes to known responses to air pollution stress can now be tested.