Natural freshwater microalgae biofilm as a tool for the clean-up of water resulting from mining activities

Figures & data

Figure 1. The stages involved in mining activities.

Figure 2. Impact of mining activities on surface and ground water (MINEO consortium, 2000).

Table 1. The effect of organic and inorganic contaminant resulting from mining activities.

S/N	Type of pollutant	Class of contaminant	Environmental effect of contaminant	References
1	DDT	Organic	It tends to accumulate in sediment, water and organisms of freshwater habitat, it affects the diversity of fungi, bacteria and protist. it is reported to cause reproductive failure in fishes and aquatic birds that prey on fishes	Ghani et al. (2009)
2	PCBs	Organic	Accumulate in sediment, water and organisms of freshwater habitat, is reported to cause reproductive failure in fishes and aquatic birds that prey on fishes	Cui et al. (2020)
3	PBDEs	Organic	Accumulate in sediment, water and organisms of freshwater habitat, is reported to cause reproductive failure in fishes and aquatic birds that prey on fishes	Liu et al. (2018)
4	PCDDs	Organic	Accumulate in sediment, water and organisms of freshwater habitat, is reported to cause reproductive failure in fishes and aquatic birds that prey on fishes	Kannan et al. (2008)
5	PCDFs	Organic	Accumulate in sediment, water and organisms of freshwater habitat, is reported to cause reproductive failure in fishes and aquatic birds that prey on fishes	Chen et al. (2012)
6	PAHs	Organic	PAH is utilized by aquatic organisms including mollusks, crustaceans, polychaetes, fish etc., but at higher concentration PAH tend to be toxic to marine organisms leading to reproductive and endocrine failure in fish	Brewster et al. (2017)
7	BTEX	Organic	BTEX are moderately toxic to aquatic flora and fauna at higher concentration which resulted from spillage but are unlikely to cause any toxicity at normal environmental level because they degrade easily.	(Fernandes et al. 2014)
8	Ammonia	Inorganic	Causes Eutrophication and algae blooms	Sonthiphand et al. (2013)
9	Nitrate	Inorganic	Causes Eutrophication and algae blooms	Li et al. (2013)
10	Phosphate	Inorganic	Causes Eutrophication and algae blooms	Wang and Liang (2015)
11	Heavy Metals	Inorganic	Effect depend on the type of heavy metal but toxicity of all heavy metal in freshwater organisms results when the uptake rate exceeds the combined standards of detoxification	Duncan et al. (2018)

Source: Modified from Ajibade et al. (2020).

Figure 3. The process of natural freshwater microalgae biofilm formation (a) initial attachment (b) permanent attachment (c) initial maturation (d) permanent maturation (e) dispersion.

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