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Series Editor Ajit Varma, Amity Institute of Microbial Technology, Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Noida, UP, India For further volumes: http://www.springer.com/series/5138

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Irena Sherameti

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Ajit Varma

Editors

Detoxification of Heavy Metals

Editors Dr. Irena Sherameti Friedrich-Schiller Universita¨t Jena Institut fu¨r Allgemeine Botanik und Pflanzenphysiologie Dornburger Str. 159 07743 Jena Germany [email protected]

Prof. Dr. Ajit Varma Amity University Uttar Pradesh Amity Institute of Microbial Sciences Noida Uttar Pradesh Block A, Ground Floor, Sector 125 India [email protected]

ISSN 1613-3382 ISBN 978-3-642-21407-3 e-ISBN 978-3-642-21408-0 DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-21408-0 Springer Heidelberg Dordrecht London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2011934686 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Violations are liable to prosecution under the German Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)

Foreword

Many heavy metals are essential for all organisms, e.g. as active centres of enzymes. At higher than optimal concentrations, however, they become toxic. For non-essential metals, toxicity is observed above a range of tolerance. Because of the relevance of these phenomena for damage to nature in general and to humans in particular, heavy metal toxicity and mechanisms counteracting it in various ways are a subject of intensive research since many years (for a comprehensive recent review see, e.g. Ku¨pper and Kroneck 2005). Although I myself do not directly work on soil biology but on plant biology, I am writing this foreword because terrestrial plants certainly and heavily depend on the soil they are growing in. Thus, they suffer when this soil contains toxic compounds, such as excess levels of heavy metals. Such toxic heavy metal concentrations can have natural reasons; naturally heavy metal-rich soils are found in various locations around the world where metal ores come to the surface and decay due to weathering. A few examples of such locations are the Katangan copper belt in Kongo and Zaire (Duvigneaud 1958; Malaisse et al. 1999), nickel-rich serpentine soils in Cuba (Reeves et al. 1996), North America (Rajakaruna et al. 2009) as well as Sulaw