Martin Urík

Martin Urík
Comenius University Bratislava · Institute of Laboratory Research on Geometrials

PhD

About

120
Publications
38,392
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1,876
Citations
Additional affiliations
September 2010 - present
Comenius University Bratislava
Position
  • Researcher
January 2008 - December 2012
Comenius University in Bratislava - Univerzita Komenskeho v Bratislave

Publications

Publications (120)
Article
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Biotransformation of ochres, a material crucial in immobilizing toxic elements, such as arsenic and antimony, found in mine effluents is investigated by Mössbauer spectrometry. Incubation of ochreous sediments was performed with the fungus Aspergillus niger . Neutron activation analysis determined the elemental composition. The findings demonstrate...
Article
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Iodine is a critical trace element necessary for human and animal health owing to its role in thyroid hormone synthesis. Despite its importance, iodine deficiency remains a global health concern. Traditional methods to address this issue, such as salt iodization, face challenges like iodine loss during storage and cooking. The biofortification of p...
Article
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This study investigates the biosorption capabilities of kefir grains, a polysaccharide-based byproduct of the fermentation process, for removing copper(II) and arsenic(V) from contaminated water. Unlike traditional heavy-metal removal methods, which are typically expensive and involve environmentally harmful chemicals, biopolymeric materials such a...
Article
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Cloud point extraction (CPE) has emerged as a highly promising method for the isolation and preconcentration of trace elements from beverages. By utilizing nonionic surfactants to form micellar structures that encapsulate analytes, CPE significantly enhances extraction efficiency and detection limits, often achieving improvements by several orders...
Article
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Background and Aims Bioremediation of soils contaminated with metal(loid)s is an attractive research area due to its sustainability and economic benefits. In the Slovak Republic, there are several abandoned mines containing high concentrations of arsenic (As) and antimony (Sb). This calls for new options for removing these hazardous metalloids from...
Article
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The use of pesticides in agricultural practices raises concerns considering the toxic effects they generate in the environment; thus, their sustainable application in crop production remains a challenge. One of the frequently addressed issues regarding their application includes the development of a sustainable and ecofriendly approach for their de...
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Manganese oxides are considered an essential component of natural geochemical barriers due to their redox and sorptive reactivity towards essential and potentially toxic trace elements. Despite the perception that they are in a relatively stable phase, microorganisms can actively alter the prevailing conditions in their microenvironment and initiat...
Article
Two different biocleaning techniques for stamp removal from different paper samples (handmade and machine-made) were investigated. Cellulose is the main component of handmade paper, while higher concentration of lignin is present in machine-made paper. Biocleaning methods included the direct application on paper surfaces of the extracellular enzyma...
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Fungi contain species with a plethora of ways of adapting to life in nature. Consequently, they produce large amounts of diverse biomolecules that can be generated on a large scale and in an affordable manner. This makes fungi an attractive alternative for many biotechnological processes. Ascomycetes and basidiomycetes are the most commonly used fu...
Article
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Selenium can be highly toxic in excess for both animals and humans. However, since its mobile forms can be easily adsorbed with ferric minerals, its mobility in the natural oxic environment is generally not an issue. Still, the removal and immobilization of the long-lived radioactive isotope 79Se from the contaminated anoxic waters is currently a s...
Article
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Biosorption is considered an effective technique for the treatment of heavy-metal-bearing wastewaters. In recent years, various biogenic products, including native and functionalized biopolymers, have been successfully employed in technologies aiming for the environmentally sustainable immobilization and removal of heavy metals at contaminated site...
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In the 21st century, nanomaterials play an increasingly important role in our lives with applications in many sectors, including agriculture, biomedicine, and biosensors. Over the last two decades, extensive research has been conducted to find ways to synthesise nanoparticles (NPs) via mediation with fungi or fungal extracts. Mycosynthesis can pote...
Article
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Selenium and iodine are essential trace elements for both humans and animals. Among other things, they have an essential role in thyroid function and the production of important hormones by the thyroid gland. Unfortunately, in many areas, soils are deficient in selenium and iodine, and their amount is insufficient to produce crops with adequate con...
Article
Colloidal particles can attach to surfaces during transport, but the attachment depends on particle size, hydrodynamics, solid and water chemistry, and particulate matter. The attachment is quantified in filtration theory by measuring attachment or sticking efficiency (Alpha). A comprehensive Alpha database (2538 records) was built from experiments...
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Pseudomonas biofilms have been studied intensively for several decades and research outcomes have been successfully implemented in various medical and agricultural applications. Research on biofilm synthesis and composition has also overlapped with the objectives of environmental sciences, since biofilm components show exceptional physicochemical p...
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The quantification of gold nanoparticles (AuNP) in environmental samples at ultratrace concentrations can be accurately performed by sophisticated and pricey analytical methods. This paper aims to challenge the analytical potential and advantages of cheaper and equally reliable alternatives that couple the well-established extraction procedures wit...
Chapter
Various industries, including agriculture, are increasingly interested in inorganic nanomaterials. Their smaller size (<100 nm) and tunability give rise to different chemical, physical, and biological properties compared with conventionally applied products. The study of the nanoworld with its unexplored processes and scientific challenges led to a...
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Nanotechnology offers new opportunities for the development of novel materials and strategies that improve technology and industry. This applies especially to agriculture, and our previous field studies have indicated that zinc oxide nanoparticles provide promising nano-fertilizer dispersion in sustainable agriculture. However, little is known abou...
Article
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Iodine is an essential micronutrient for most of the living beings, including humans. Besides its indispensable role in animals, it also plays an important role in the environment. It undergoes several chemical and biological transformations resulting in the production of volatile methylated iodides, which play a key role in the iodine’s global geo...
Article
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Filamentous fungus Aspergillus niger is commonly found on decaying vegetation or in indoor environment and has a number of uses, including application in bioremediation. Hence, the basic interactions of this common mould with selenite were studied, including biovolatilization, bioaccumulation and toxicity effects of selenite on fungal growth. The f...
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Engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) have potential application in precision farming and sustainable agriculture. Studies have shown that ENPs enhance the efficiency of the delivery of agrochemicals and thus, have the potential to positively affect the environment, thereby improving the growth and health of the crops. However, the majority of the resear...
Article
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Iodine is an essential micronutrient for most living beings, including humans. Despite efforts through various iodine deficiency disorders elimination programs, such as salt iodization, this problem still persists. Sub-clinical deficiencies have often an endemic character, and they are characteristic to certain areas, where iodine is low or inacces...
Article
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Bioleaching of mineral phases plays a crucial role in the mobility and availability of various elements, including selenium. Therefore, the leachability of selenium associated with the surfaces of ferric and manganese oxides and oxyhydroxides, the prevailing components of natural geochemical barriers, has been studied in the presence of filamentous...
Article
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This work aimed to examine the bioleaching of manganese oxides at various oxidation states (MnO, MnO·Mn2O3, Mn2O3 and MnO2) by a strain of the filamentous fungus Aspergillus niger, a frequent soil representative. Our results showed that the fungus effectively disintegrated the crystal structure of selected mineral manganese phases. Thereby, during...
Article
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Iron-based nanomaterials have high technological impacts on various pro-environmental applications, including wastewater treatment using the co-precipitation method. The purpose of this research was to identify the changes of iron nanomaterial’s structure caused by the presence of selenium, a typical water contaminant, which might affect the remova...
Chapter
Increasing usage of nanoparticles raises concern about their potential adverse effect on various ecosystems. Once released into the natural environment, various interactions affect their transport and ecotoxicity. Especially in the soil environment, the presence of natural organic matter, a highly diversified and reactive soil component, can affect...
Article
Natural ferric ochres that precipitate in streambeds at abandoned mining sites are natural scavengers of various metals and metalloids. Thus, their chemical and structural modification via microbial activity should be considered in evaluation of the risks emerging from probable spread of contamination at mining sites. Our results highlight the role...
Chapter
Materials with at least one dimension (out of three) within the nano-scale range (< 100 nm) often exhibit unique physical, chemical and biological properties. Despite their wide application, only little is known about nanomaterials’ behaviour in natural matrices. An essential aspect of the hazard assessment of nanomaterials is to understand their i...
Chapter
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Humic substances belong to a complex and heterogeneous group of soil organic matter that provide active redox and sorption sites for various potentially toxic metals and metalloids. One of the other soil components that may significantly affect humic substance-metal(loid) interactions is microbial community that plays a vital role in mobility of va...
Article
Iodine is an essential micronutrient that enters the food chain from soil primarily via plant root absorption. However, only water soluble and exchangeable fractions are usually linked to the bioavailable iodine in soils. Therefore, an assessment of iodine pools in soils via sequential extraction can provide useful information on the availability o...
Article
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The nanoparticles of TiO2 (TiO2 NP) have been used as a plant-growth stimulant or catalyst in pesticide formulas. However, due to high resistance of TiO2 NP to abiotic weathering, dissolved Ti is unlikely to act as an active compound in these preparations. Even if soil is acidic, TiO2 NP do not dissolve easily and preferably remain as undissolved p...
Article
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The aim of this work was to evaluate the transformation of manganese oxide (hausmannite) by microscopic filamentous fungus Aspergillus niger and the effects of the transformation on mobility and bioavailability of arsenic. Our results showed that the A. niger strain CBS 140837 greatly affected the stability of hausmannite and induced its transforma...
Article
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In this work, the viability of bioaccumulation and bioextraction processes for arsenic removal from contaminated waters, as well as the recycling of arsenate-treated amorphous ferric oxyhydroxide adsorbent (FeOOH) were evaluated using the common soil microscopic filamentous fungus Aspergillus niger. After treating the contaminated arsenate solution...
Article
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Zinc is among the most in-demand metals in the world which also means that a considerable amount of this element is released to the environment each year as a result of human activities. A pot experiment was conducted to study the impact of low-and high-dose zinc amendments on plant growth and biomass yield, with Calcic Chernozem as a growing mediu...
Article
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Iodine is an essential trace element for both humans and animals. It is essential to produce important hormones by the thyroid gland. In most inland areas, the soils are iodine deficient and its amount is insufficient to produce agricultural crops with adequate iodine content to cover the recommended daily intake. In connection with the occurrence...
Article
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The evaluation of nanoparticle bioavailability or the bioavailability of dissolved elements by direct measurement through plant uptake is a strenuous process. Several multi-step sequential extraction procedures, including the BCR sequential extraction procedure, have been created to provide potential accessibility of elements, where real soil-plant...
Article
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Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) belong to the most widely used nanoparticles in both commercial products and industrial applications. Hence, they are frequently released into the environment. Soil fungi can affect the mobilization of zinc from ZnO NPs in soils, and thus they can heavily influence the mobility and bioavailability of zinc there. T...
Article
Iron-containing spontaneously precipitated ochreous sediments serve as natural scavengers of various migrating elements and in this way contribute to removal and immobilization of potentially hazardous elements especially from mine drainage outflows. On the other hand, presence of filamentous fungi in their surroundings triggers biotransformation a...
Article
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We investigated ochratoxin A (OTA) contamination in raisin samples purchased from Slovak markets and determined the diversity of black-spored aspergilli as potential OTA and fumonisin (FB1 and FB2) producers. The taxonomic identification was performed using sequences of the nuclear ITS1-5.8s-ITS2 region, the calmodulin and beta-tubulin genes. We ob...
Article
Microbial mobilization of arsenopyrite minerals under oxic conditions are well known; however, little is known about how the metals can be mobilized through biodegradation of mine tailings. Therefore, the role of inoculated Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans on the mobility of arsenic and iron was examined for a sample of South Korean mine tailing. Two...
Article
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Nano-fertilisers have only recently been introduced to intensify plant production, and there still remains inadequate scientific knowledge on their plant-related effects. This paper therefore compares the effects of two nano-fertilisers on common sunflower production under field conditions. The benefits arising from the foliar application of micron...
Article
Iron oxyhydroxides are widely spread in soils and sediments. They can considerably affect the migration of selenate in the environment, due to their high affinity towards oxyanions. To assess the sorptive properties of one of the most common oxyhydroxides, the selenate sorption onto goethite and its effects on goethite's structural properties durin...
Article
The bioleaching of chalcopyrite concentrate, intensified by the adapted mesophilic culture in the continuous stirred tank reactors (CSTR) was investigated. The cumulative bioleaching efficiency of copper was found to be increased from 34.8%–49.3% in CSTR-1, 40.3%–71.2% in CSTR-2, and 44.3%–73.8% in CSTR-3, while the temperature was elevated from 30...
Article
Batch experiments aimed at solid-liquid distribution of 40 nm engineered zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NP), microparticles (bulk ZnO), and ionic Zn in ZnSO4 solution were conducted on eight field soil samples of different characteristics to identify how the form of Zn affects its distribution in soil. The concentration of Zn in different size fract...
Article
This paper investigates Aspergillus niger's behaviour in the presence of mobile Al3+ species by evaluating the changes in oxalate exudation at various aluminium contents. When the fungus was exposed to Al3+, no significant changes in oxalate production were observed until 100 mg.L-1 aluminium was reached resulting in oxalate production decrease by...
Article
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It has been shown that the foliar application of inorganic nano-materials on cereal plants during their growth cycle enhances the rate of plant productivity by providing a micro-nutrient source. We therefore studied the effects of foliarly applied ZnO nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) on Setaria italica L. foxtail millet's quantitative, nutritional, and phys...
Article
Elevated iron content in low-grade kaolin is one of the chemical factors detrimental for its industrial applications. Therefore, various physical and chemical methods have been applied to decrease iron concentration in kaolin. One of the more feasible and environmentally friendly method is biobenefication via microbially-induced bioextraction. Ther...
Article
This paper reflects some of the recent attempts to apply microbial biomass in analytical procedures, and thus investigates prospects of fungal biomass in experimental separation of labile Al species using flame atomic absorption spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry for their quantification. The three strains of...
Article
Sorption of oxyanions onto ferric oxyhydroxides’ surfaces is naturally occurring process with advantageous implications in remediation of contaminated waters or management of landfills. Therefore, this paper provides information on selenite sorption onto goethite, which is one of the most common oxyhydroxides in the environment. Our results showed...
Article
Adding the humic acid coating to the nanoparticles of zinc oxide (ZnO-NP) may improve the properties necessary for their colloidal stability. To show how humic acid coating affects the properties of ZnO-NP, three differently sol-gel synthesized ZnO-NP were synthesized: pristine zinc oxide nanoparticles without coating (p-ZnO-NP) and humic acid coat...
Article
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Obsah 1. Úvod 2. Zdroje organických kyselín v pôdach 2.1. Biogénne zdroje organických kyselín 3. Správanie a význam organických kyselín v pôdnom prostredí 3.1. Vplyv na pôdne pH 3.2. Sorpcia na pôdne komponenty 3.3. Rozpúšťanie pôdnych minerálov 3.4. Chelatácia potenciálne toxických prvkov 4. Záver 1. Úvod V zmysle práce 1 považujeme za pôdne organ...
Article
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This paper provides a unique comparison of the performance of four wild-type Aspergillus niger strains in remediation of aluminium(III)-contaminated aqueous solutions. The direct fungal aluminium removal via biosorption and bioaccumulation was compared among all fungal strains, including bioaccumulation efficiency during dynamic and static cultivat...
Article
Ferric oxyhydroxides are natural scavengers of antimony, thus, they contribute significantly to antimony immobilization in soils and sediments. Recent studies, however, usually omit microbial influence on geochemically stable antimony-ferric oxyhydroxide association. Therefore, we have evaluated fungal contribution to antimony mobility during stati...
Article
Physical and chemical methods for nanoparticle synthesis are disadvantageous to less energy demanding and more efficient and environmentally friendly biological approaches. Thus, in this paper, we designed simple, bottom-up, in vitro, static experiment under laboratory conditions using suspension of mixed flower pollen grains for nanoparticle synth...
Article
Bioleaching of aluminium mineral boehmite by filamentous fungus Aspergillus niger was compared to chemical leaching by citric, oxalic and hydrochloric acids to evaluate the significance of A. niger’s metabolites on aluminium mobilization from this natural component of the aluminium ore. Our results highlighted that leaching efficiency of hydrochlor...
Article
This article reports on variation in infiltration rates of soil aggregates as a result of phenomenon known as air slaking. Air slaking is caused by the compression and subsequent escape of air captured inside soil aggregates during water saturation. Although it has been generally assumed that it occurs mostly when dry aggregates are rapidly wetted,...
Article
Full-text available
Selenite is an environmental toxicant whose mobility is affected in soil by various natural components, including humic acids, clay minerals, amorphous ferric oxyhydroxides [FeOx(OH)y], and microorganisms. However, interactions of selenite with these components are usually evaluated separately. Therefore, we addressed selenite behavior in multicomp...
Chapter
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Filamentous fungi are a ubiquitous and evolutionarily successful group of eukaryotic organisms that play various vital roles in Earth's ecosystem. However, all essential ecosystem-level functions carried out by filamentous fungi are influenced in contaminated areas, where metal and metalloid pollutants can negatively affect their survival, fitness,...
Article
Artificial adamite [Zn 2 (AsO 4)(OH)] is a convenient structural model because it is isostructural with other rock-forming minerals in secondary ore deposits formed in cementation zones. Microbial activity in these zones accelerates mineral biogeochemical deterioration and metal release, and our results confirmed that Pseudomonas, Rhodococcus and C...
Article
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Five common fungal strains, Cladosporium cladosporioides, Aspergillus clavatus, Penicillium citrinum, Fusarium oxysporum, and Alternaria alternata, were cultivated in presence of iodide and iodate to evaluate their efficiency in iodine biovolatilization and bioaccumulation. Our results suggest that iodide and iodate bioaccumulation by microscopic f...
Article
Iodine is an essential trace element for humans, and while plants play an important role in its supplementation, they can also be subject to iodine toxicity. Herein, comparison of iodide and iodate effects on barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) development was evaluated in laboratory experiments when it was cultivated in iodine-spiked agar cultivation medi...
Article
Since the fate of nanoparticles after their release in the environment and their possible transfer in plants and subsequent impacts is still largely unknown, this paper evaluates the potential phytotoxic effects of up to 20% w/w TiO2 nanoparticles (nTiO2) on barley cultivated in hydroponics and agar media. The X-ray diffraction analysis confirmed t...
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This paper deals with comparison of some physical and chemical properties of wettable and water repellent surface horizons of cambisols collected in White Carpathians Protected Landscape Area in order to better understand the mechanisms of soil water repellency. Repellency tests were conducted under laboratory conditions in triplicate using the Mol...
Article
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The mechanism of iodine uptake by plants from soil is the interest of many studies, though the information about the uptake mechanism and iodine mobility in soil is still insufficient. The uptake of the most common naturally occurring iodine species in soil—iodide and iodate by barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) from iodine-spiked soil and agar cultivatio...
Article
This study investigates the relationship between water repellency and selected physical and chemical characteristics of topsoil in the area of White Carpathian Mts. (Slovakia). WDPT and MED tests were used for the purpose of water repellency assessment. It was found that particular type of landuse is an important factor for water repellency develop...
Article
Presence of microorganisms in soils strongly affects mobility of metals. This fact is often excluded when mobile metal fraction in soil is studied using extraction procedures. Thus, the first objective of this paper was to evaluate strain Aspergillus niger’s exometabolites contribution on aluminium mobilization. Fungal exudates collected in various...
Article
While selenium is an essential trace element, its excessive intake causes adverse effects to human health. Therefore, selenium control and removal from water and soil are crucial in limiting environmental and human health risk. Various microorganisms have recently been exploited for use in remediation processes, especially filamentous fungi which a...