Author(s):
1. Nemanja Jungic, Republic of Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina
2. Marijana Kapovic Solomun, Šumarski fakultet Banja Luka , Republic of Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina
3. Mihajlo Markovic, Republic of Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina
4. Svjetlana Coralic, Republic of Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract:
Soil resources are often exposed to different hazards, which leads to its degradation and minimization of its productivity. In order to make degraded/contaminated soil functional, there are many methods with remediation being one of the most important one. Environment remediation consists of different methods for rehabilitation of current and minimization of further environment contamination. Contamination can be defined as elevated levels of toxic organic and/or inorganic compounds in soil and water. These two environments are connected and every change in one of them, has direct influence on the other. The main soil and water contaminants are heavy metals, mineral fertilizers, pesticides, acid rain, pathogenic microorganisms and radionuclides. The main cause of contamination is irresponsible human activities towards natural resources and environment, especially during the last and at the beginning of this century. Conventional remediation methods often rely on expensive and complicated technologies, which at the end often do not fulfill expected results and gave high expenses. Some of the natural methods and substances that have been used for remediation of contaminated soil and water are phytoremediation, composting and zeolite. Phytoremediation is known as “green” technology that use living plants to clean up soil and water from organic pollutants, heavy metals and radionuclides. This is an integrated approach for managing environment pollution and it unifies knowledge from different branches of science: biology, agriculture, forestry, pedology, hydrology, chemistry and architecture. Padmavathiamma and Li (2009) used Lolium perenne, Festuca rubra, Helianthus annuus, Brassica napus and Poa pratensis for phytoextraction and phytostabilization of soil contaminated with Cu, Pb, Mb and Zn. Lolium perenne was effective for phytostabilization of Cu and Pb, Festuca rubra of Mn and Poa pratensis of Zn. Composting is a system of organic waste management, through natural microorganism activity of decomposing organic matter. Decomposition of plant waste (sometimes mixed with animal waste) result in fine substance that is rich with useful microorganisms and nutrients. Compost has been used not only for improvement of physical and chemical soil properties but also for successful remediation of organic pollutants from soil such as pesticides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) but not heavy metals (Barker and Bryson, 2002). Ulmanu et al. (2006) successfully used natural zeolite to immobilize lead, copper, zinc, cadmium and manganese from polluted soil and to reduce the transfer of these heavy metals into corn, mustard and oat plants. Combined with organic fertilizer, zeolite also enhanced wheat growth in substrates highly contaminated by heavy metals (Leggo and Ledésert, 2001). Faridnia et al. (2014) concluded that arsenic (As) density in waste water decreases after treatment with zeolite. This paper aims to elaborate ecologically acceptable remediation methods for soil and water quality improvement that have been used in practice as well as in scientific researches.

Key words:
Environment, contamination, phytoremediation, compost, zeolite.

Thematic field:
Forest ecology and conservation of natural resources

Date of abstract submission:
10.09.2017.

Conference:
Šumarska nauka u funkciji održivog razvoja šumarstva
25 godina šumarstva Republike Srpske