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The accumulation of large amounts of contaminants occurs in the environment due to industrialization and various other anthropogenic activities. Contaminants ultimately affect human health worldwide. Organic, inorganic, and radioactive substances are the prevalent forms of environmental contaminants and their complete remediation in soils and sediments is rather a difficult task. Concerns of their toxicities led to the emphasis on development of effective techniques to assess the presence and mobility of contaminants in air, water, and soil. Furthermore, the ever-increasing concentration of toxic pollutants in the environment is considered a serious threat to plant, animal, human, and environmental health.Many technologies are in use to clean and eliminate hazardous contaminants from the environment; however, these technologies can be costly, labor intensive, and often distressing to the general public. Phytoremediation is a simple, cost effective, environmentally friendly and fast-emerging new technology for eliminating toxic contaminants from different environments. Phytoremediation refers to the natural ability of certain plants and their associated microbiome (including hyper-accumulators or bio-accumulators) to remove, degrade, or render contaminants harmless. Through this technique, certain species of plants flourish by accumulating contaminants present in the environment. The unique and selective uptake capabilities of plant root and shoot systems, effective translocation, bioaccumulation, and contaminant degradation capabilities of the accumulator plants are utilized in phytoremediation techniques. Phytotechnologies involving the use of plants for contaminant removal gained importance during the last two decades and phytoremediation technology became an effective tool for environmental detoxification because of plants ability to accumulate the contaminants at very high concentrations.Phytoremediation strategies can remove, degrade, or stabilize inorganic and organic contaminants entering a multitude of ecosystems using green plants and their associated microbial communities. The development and use of phytotechnologies continues to move forward at a steady pace. Researchers recognize the potential of phytoremediation to offer a green, cost effective, eco-friendly and feasible application to address some of the world's many environmental challenges. This book provides significant information to add to the previous volumes published on the topic and can serve as the foundation for the development of new applications that feature the integration of modern research discoveries into new methods to remediate contaminated ecosystems. Moreover, this volume brings recent and established knowledge on different aspects of phytoremediation and nano-phytoremediation, providing this information in a single source that offers a cutting-edge synthesis of scientific and experiential knowledge on polluted environments that is useful for policy makers, practitioners and scientists, and engineers.Phytoremediation: Management of Environmental Contaminants, Volume 7 highlights the various prospects that are involved in current global phytoremediation research. This book delivers a content-rich source to the reader and can act as a platform for further research studies. It should meet the needs of all researchers working in, or have an interest in this particular field.

Biostimulants in Alleviation of Metal Toxicity in Plants: Emerging Trends and Opportunities focuses on the role of substances or micro-organisms whose presence can address issues of metal contamination in soils, seeds and plants. Including a range of biostimulant tools, the book highlights both endogenous and exogenous application. Written and edited by a global team of experts, this book presents an overview on biostimulants in determining metal toxicity. As plants encounter a wide range of environmental challenges during their lifecycle, among which metal toxicity is a common form of abiotic stress, this book thoroughly covers important topics on the subject matter. Once inside a plant system, toxic metals may initiate a variety of physiological alterations in plants, including adversely impacted seed germination, root and shoot growth, chloroplasts ultrastructure and photosynthesis, nutrients assimilation, carbohydrates metabolism, and plant hormonal status which, collectively, results in reduced plants yields. In addition to several naturally occurring physiological and metabolic re-programing responses, plants may also modify their root and shoot systems in order to dilute entered amount of toxic metals. As an additional tool biostimulants have emerged as one of the important plant protectors under adverse conditions. - Includes endogenous and exogenous application of biostimulants - Focuses on use based on specific metal contamination - Presents forward-looking prospects for the use of biostimulants in plant health protection

The COVID-19 pandemic is not only a threat to our health and economy, but also has strong implications for defence and security. Indeed, defence leaders have highlighted a second fight surrounding the spread of COVID-19, namely disinformation and preparing to face adversaries willing to exploit the public health crisis for nefarious purposes. The current pandemic is a breeding ground for the propagation of disinformation, as it represents the first major global health event in which large social media platforms have become the main distributor of information. This multi-national edited volume consists of contributions from Defence Science, academia and industry, including NATO Headquarters, United States, Netherlands, Singapore, United Kingdom and Norway. The content is aimed at a diverse audience, including NATO members, researchers from defence and security organizations, academics, and militaries including analysts and practitioners, as well as policy makers. This volume focuses onvarious aspects of COVID-19 disinformation, including identifying global dominant disinformation narratives and the methods used to spread disinformation, examining COVID-19 disinformation within the broader context of the cognitive domain, examining the psychological effects of COVID-19 disinformation and COVID-19 disinformation on instant messaging platforms, along with examining various countermeasures to disinformation.