Harnessing Biotechnology for the Remediation of Organic Pollutants in Coastal Marine Ecosystems

The natural and biological processes of organisms offer significant potential for the removal and remediation of environmental contaminants including organic pollutants such as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), pesticides, herbicides, industrial chemicals, and pharmaceuticals. Biotechnology provides various approaches to detoxify or remove these pollutants from ecosystems through the use of microorganisms and plants. This review explores the application of biotechnology for the remediation of organic pollutants in coastal marine ecosystems. A thorough analysis of the existing literature highlights bioremediation methods, such as biostimulation, bioaugmentation, and bioattenuation, and phytoremediation methods, like phytoextraction, phytostabilization, phytovolatilization, phytodegradaton, and phytofiltration. as the most widely used techniques in biotechnology. While bioremediation has advanced substantially in fields such as electrochemistry, genetic engineering, and nanotechnology, there is still limited research on the compatibility and application of these technologies in phytoremediation. This paper therefore aims to examine biotechnological methods for tackling organic pollutants in coastal marine environments with an emphasis on the need for further research on enhancing phytoremediation through microbial inoculation and nanomaterial-assisted uptake.