Periodic Reporting for period 1 - NYMPHE (New system-driven bioremediation of polluted habitats and environment)
Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2024-06-30
Environmental pollution poses a serious threat to human health and the environment that urges efficient solutions to recover the integrity of ecosystems and natural resources essential for human life. Conventional bioremediation approaches relying on single (micro)organisms often come up short when applied to real contaminated environments, due to the intrinsic complexity of contaminated sites in terms of pollutant mixtures, biogeochemistry and biocoenosis.
Nymphe aims to push the efficiency limits of nature-based solutions and develop real situation-tailored and nature-inspired bioremediation/revitalization strategies by exploiting associations of mulptiple biologics (enzymes, microorganisms, bivalves, earthworms and plants) to maximize bioremediation performances while promoting the recovery of biodiversity and ecosystem functions.
Focusing on 4 real contaminated sites representing common situations of environmental pollution in Europe and worldwide, Nymphe develops its bioremediation/revitalization strategies addressing environmental matrices polluted by mixed “old” persistent toxic substances and contaminants of emerging concern:
- soil and groundwater contaminated by petroleum and chlorinated hydrocarbons,
- agricultural soil contaminated by plastics and pesticides,
- river sediment and surface water (hyporheic zone) contaminated by mixtures of pharmaceutical micropollutants,
- municipal wastewater contaminated by emerging micropollutants, including pharmaceuticals, microplastics and plasticizers.
Through validation at pilot/field scale and full assessment of its system-based bioremediation/revitalization strategies form technical, environmental, economic and societal perspectives, Nymphe aims to deliver effective, sustainable and socially supported solutions to fully recover and revitalize contaminated sites, restoring a good ecological status of the ecosystems in terms of microbial biodiversity/ecosystem services.
Nymphe aims to push the efficiency limits of nature-based solutions and develop real situation-tailored and nature-inspired bioremediation/revitalization strategies by exploiting associations of mulptiple biologics (enzymes, microorganisms, bivalves, earthworms and plants) to maximize bioremediation performances while promoting the recovery of biodiversity and ecosystem functions.
Focusing on 4 real contaminated sites representing common situations of environmental pollution in Europe and worldwide, Nymphe develops its bioremediation/revitalization strategies addressing environmental matrices polluted by mixed “old” persistent toxic substances and contaminants of emerging concern:
- soil and groundwater contaminated by petroleum and chlorinated hydrocarbons,
- agricultural soil contaminated by plastics and pesticides,
- river sediment and surface water (hyporheic zone) contaminated by mixtures of pharmaceutical micropollutants,
- municipal wastewater contaminated by emerging micropollutants, including pharmaceuticals, microplastics and plasticizers.
Through validation at pilot/field scale and full assessment of its system-based bioremediation/revitalization strategies form technical, environmental, economic and societal perspectives, Nymphe aims to deliver effective, sustainable and socially supported solutions to fully recover and revitalize contaminated sites, restoring a good ecological status of the ecosystems in terms of microbial biodiversity/ecosystem services.
A large collection of microbial communities, bacteria, fungi and microalgae, that can degrade pharmaceuticals (including two antibiotics), micropollutants, plastic derivatives and plasticizers, petroleum and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and pesticides occurring at the Nymphe sites has been obtained. Native and genomically edited plants suited for phyto/rhizoremediatiation of petroleum contaminated soils have been selected, along with bacteria endowed with both ability to promote plant growth and degrade target pollutants. The micropollutants biosorption capacity of pretreated bivalve shells has been assessed for exploitation in association with wastewater bioremediation, and the effect of eartworms of different ecotypes on pesticides biodegradation has been investigated for the vermiremediation of agricultural soils.
A first set of multicomponent systems combining selected biologics with complementary degradation abilities has been preliminarily tested on a laboratory scale to address multiple pollutants biodegradation in the target matrices.
Tools to accelerate the evolution, to genomically improve or to control the assembly and spatial distribution of microbes or microbial communities have been implementated using molecular biology, AI, additive biomanufacturing and bioelectrochemical approaches. On a microbiome level, a database of metagenomic data and metadata from the Nymphe sites has been created and degradation genes and pathways have been identified, with particular focus on pharmaceuticals and hydrocarbons. The database will serve as input for modelling and predicting degradation efficiencies of the systems in a chemical environment digital template under development, to identify potential modulators for the improvement of systems’ performances.
The Nymphe sites have been prepared to host the pilot/field tests and characterized. This included i) an initial ecotoxicological and chemical assessments of matrices and the selection of a battery of ecotoxicity tests for each site, and ii) a first-stage ex-ante ecological status assessment considering a framework of reference ecosystems and ecological targets of Natura 2000.
A first set of multicomponent systems combining selected biologics with complementary degradation abilities has been preliminarily tested on a laboratory scale to address multiple pollutants biodegradation in the target matrices.
Tools to accelerate the evolution, to genomically improve or to control the assembly and spatial distribution of microbes or microbial communities have been implementated using molecular biology, AI, additive biomanufacturing and bioelectrochemical approaches. On a microbiome level, a database of metagenomic data and metadata from the Nymphe sites has been created and degradation genes and pathways have been identified, with particular focus on pharmaceuticals and hydrocarbons. The database will serve as input for modelling and predicting degradation efficiencies of the systems in a chemical environment digital template under development, to identify potential modulators for the improvement of systems’ performances.
The Nymphe sites have been prepared to host the pilot/field tests and characterized. This included i) an initial ecotoxicological and chemical assessments of matrices and the selection of a battery of ecotoxicity tests for each site, and ii) a first-stage ex-ante ecological status assessment considering a framework of reference ecosystems and ecological targets of Natura 2000.
In its system-based approach, Nymphe rationally assembles selected biologics (enzymes, microbes, plants, animals) to complement and integrate their degradation abilities, and acclimatizes them to the matrix of the contaminated site to facilitate reimplantation in the site to bioremediate/revitalize. It also exploits natural microbial recruitment processes (e.g. “cry for help” mechanism) for developing optimized and stress resistant plant holobionts for phyto/rhizoremediation, and applies animal ecology principles to boost soil bioremediation (e.g. earthworms “ecosystem engineering” functions) and wastewater treatment (bivalve traits supporting invasion behaviour). Nymphe aims to advance the exploitation of microbiomes in contaminated environments for effective bioremediation through the design, testing, and validation of microbiome modulation strategies and modulators using modern bioinformatics and microbiome modelling approaches. Nymphe also develops and exploits innovative tools to improve the degradation ability and stability of microbial degraders making use of bioinformatic pipelines, novel syntetic biology concepts, additive biomanufacturing, bioelectrochemical systems and supramolecular engineering of enzymes.
In its approach, Nymphe starts at molecular and micro-scale levels and goes through field testing all the way to the macroscopic level. By means of an exhaustive assessment of the technologies’ efficiency and effective communication and dissemination to all relevant stakeholders, including civil society, Nymphe will contribute to overcoming potential technical, environmental, economic, and societal barriers hampering the use of bioremediation, supporting the achievement of a Zero Pollution environment and a healthy planet.
In its approach, Nymphe starts at molecular and micro-scale levels and goes through field testing all the way to the macroscopic level. By means of an exhaustive assessment of the technologies’ efficiency and effective communication and dissemination to all relevant stakeholders, including civil society, Nymphe will contribute to overcoming potential technical, environmental, economic, and societal barriers hampering the use of bioremediation, supporting the achievement of a Zero Pollution environment and a healthy planet.