what are some specific examples of Bioremediation??????

Answer 1

Bioremediation can be defined as any process that uses microorganisms, fungi, green plants or their enzymes to return the environment altered by contaminants to its original condition. Bioremediation may be employed to attack specific soil contaminants, such as chlorinated hydrocarbons that are degraded by bacteria, or a more general approach may be taken, such as oil spills that are broken down by multiple techniques including the addition of nitrate and/or sulfate fertilizers to facilitate the decomposition of crude oil by indigenous or exogenous bacteria.

Answer 2

http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioremediation
Desalination of agricultural land has a long tradition.
http://www.alabastercorp.com/case_studies.htm
ALABASTER CORP CASE STUDIES IN BIOREMEDIATION AND EXAMPLES OF BIOREMEDIATION PROCESS
Pollution: Environmental Soil contamination, Hydrocarbons from an oil spill
Solution: at the site listed above
Pollution: Hazardous Gasoline Fuel Spill Life at Risk
Solution: at the site listed above
Other examples listed here too.
Good luck

Answer 3

Exxon Valdez is the biggest one that comes to mind.
Also...

Crude oil spill, Bemidji, Minnesota
---In 1979, a pipeline carrying crude oil burst and contaminated the underlying aquifer. USGS scientists studying the site found that toxic chemicals leaching from the crude oil were rapidly degraded by natural microbial populations. Significantly, it was shown that the plume of contaminated ground water stopped enlarging after a few years as rates of microbial degradation came into balance with rates of contaminant leaching. This was the first and best-documented example of intrinsic bioremediation in which naturally occurring microbial processes remediates contaminated ground water without human intervention.

Sewage effluent, Cape Cod, Massachusetts
---Disposal of sewage effluent in septic drain fields is a common practice throughout the United States. Systematic studies of a sewage effluent plume at Massachusetts Military Reservation (formerly known as Otis Air Force Base) led to the first accurate field and laboratory measurements of how rapidly natural microbial populations degrade nitrate contamination (denitrification) in a shallow aquifer.

Chlorinated solvents, New Jersey
---Chlorinated solvents are a particularly common contaminant in the heavily industrialized Northeast. Because their metabolic processes are so adaptable, microorganisms can use chlorinated compounds as oxidants when other oxidants are not available. Such transformations, which can naturally remediate solvent contamination of ground water, has been extensively documented by USGS scientists at Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey.

Pesticides, San Francisco Bay Estuary
---Pesticide contamination of rivers and streams is a matter of concern throughout the United States. Field and laboratory studies in the Sacramento River and San Francisco Bay have shown the effects of biological and non-biological processes in degrading commonly used pesticides, such as molinate, thiobencarb, carbofuran, and methyl
parathion.

Agricultural chemicals in the midcontinent
---Agricultural chemicals affect the chemical quality of ground water in many Midwestern States. Studies in the midcontinent have traced the fate of nitrogen fertilizers and pesticides in ground and surface waters. These studies have shown that many common contaminants, such as the herbicide atrazine, are degraded by biological (microbial degradation) and non-biological (photolytic degradation) processes.

Gasoline contamination, Galloway, New Jersey
---Gasoline is probably the most common contaminant of ground water in the United States. Studies at this site have demonstrated rapid microbial degradation of gasoline contaminants and have shown the importance of processes in the unsaturated zone (the zone above the water table) in degrading contaminants.

Creosote contaminants, Pensacola, Florida
---Creosote and chlorinated phenols have been used extensively as wood preservatives throughout the United States. Contaminants leaked to the underlying aquifer through several unlined ponds and were transported toward nearby Pensacola Bay. Studies at this site have demonstrated that microorganisms can adapt to extremely harsh chemical conditions and that microbial degradation was restricting migration of the contaminant plume.

Answer 4

Haven't got my lecture notes with me, or i'll be able to give you more examples.

Here's one anyway:

The bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans (the most radioresistant organism known) has been modified to consume and digest toluene and ionic mercury from highly radioactive nuclear waste.

Answer 5

Healing naturally.