Have you ever thought...?
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The best wines are produced from vineyards growing in poor soils and hard climates…
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The most adapted fauna thrives in hard environments…
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The most resilient communities usually rise under difficult conditions…
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Multi-disciplinary teams are more efficient than specialized organizations due to functional synergies…
These and other ideas have inspired us towards DRuMBEAT research
Our statement
It is hypothesized that :
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Sites with different contamination degrees have different microbial communities, with those existing in contaminated sites presenting improved resilience.
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Soil microbial communities can be enriched ex-situ to further boost their biodegradative skills.
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Biochar can act as a biofilm carrier, thus improving contaminant uptake and acting as supporting agent for physical in situ spreading of the biocatalysts
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This research aims at novel techniques for remediating soil contamination, combining the use of biochar and mixed microbial cultures taken from “dirty” soils and further stimulated to perform environmental remediation.
Background
OHM Estarreja -the OHM (human-environment observatory) is a study of socio-ecosystems manmade tool, designed to respond to their complexity by implementing a comprehensive approach by combining the study of environmental science and creating dynamic for the development instead of interdisciplinarity needed. For this each OHM organized around a focal object - which will be studied by all environmental sciences - a founder event came deeply upset.
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Estarreja is a municipality of north-central Portugal, where a fifty years old chemical industry complex led to severe damages in its surrounding ecosystem, with particular impacts in soil quality. Measures to restore such soils are strongly needed.
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The long-term contamination already reported in Estarreja can be faced as a valuable opportunity for retrieving soil microbiomes that are highly adapted to contaminants and to further use them for enhanced bioremediation. As an important part of the ecosystem services provided by the soil, these microbiomes can be harvested from the contaminated soil and stimulated ex situ for decontamination purposes, not only in their original location but also in other contaminated sites.