ABSTRACT
Bioremediation to Be Successful in Polar Regions? ................................... 379 17.5 Concluding Remarks .................................................................................. 386 References .............................................................................................................. 387
Although bioremediation is a green technology that can be advantageous for application to polar regions where natural processes and pristine conditions are highly valued (see Atlas and Philp, 2005 for an overview of the applicability of bioremediation for real world cleanup efforts), it should only be relied upon if it can achieve acceptable end points of decontamination. Put another way, bioremediation can be a cost effective way of lowering the concentrations of pollutants to levels that can be accommodated in the environment without causing any ecological harm, but bioremediation has limitations that must be taken into account in considering its potential applicability to this remediation of contaminated polar environments. In some cases, bioremediation through biostimulation (e.g., fertilizer addition) is the best technology to use; in other cases it is appropriate to rely upon natural attenuation (intrinsic bioremediation), which may be the only option in the tool box with a positive bene tto-cost ratio due to expense and the ecological damage of digging up and transporting the contaminated soils or sediments (see Atlas and Bragg, 2009 for a discussion on when and when not to consider active bioremediation).
