Vinod Kumar

Government Degree College, Jammu and Kashmir, India · Botany

Lead (Pb), a pervasive and highly toxic metal, and poses significant environmental and health risks due to its extensive biogeo-chemical cycling, driven by anthropogenic activities. This review evaluates the health hazards allied with Pb contamination in surface water bodies, soils, and rice grains, based on a comprehensive analysis (2015-2024) of...

Phytostabilization, a key strategy in addressing heavy metal contamination, faces challenges in regions with frequent temperature fluctuations. The challenges arise from the impact of temperature variations on microbial activity, plant metabolism, and metal bioavailability. Acknowledging the sensitivity of soil dynamics, amendments, and ecological...

Beryllium (Be), a lightweight metal with significant industrial applications, poses notable environmental and health risks due to its toxicity and persistence, and widespread use, particularly in the mechanical, aerospace, and electronics sectors. It is commonly alloyed with other heavy metals to enhance material properties. The primary environment...

The development of economy and society makes the heavy metal(loid)s pollution more serious and contamination of rice grains by heavy metal(loid)s is a worldwide problem. In order to appraise the health risks associated with heavy metal(loid)s (As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn) in rice grains, we performed a meta-analysis based on the d...

In the past, scientific communities obtained the dose–response only partially right. They correctly described responses at high heavy metal (HM) doses, but ignored and mischaracterized the crucial response at low HM doses. Lower dosages of non-essential heavy metals (HMs) in plants induced plant hormetic responses by triggering innocuous, beneficia...

Mercury (Hg) pollution of soil and water environments is a major global threat to human health, agri-food systems and ecosystems and industrial activities mainly coal combustion augmented their content in different environmental media. Bioremediation is a nature-based solution involving microbial-and plant-based (phytoremediation) technologies that...

Soil and water are two important basic ecosystems for the survival of different organisms. The excessive microplastic pollutants in soil have been directly discharged into the terrestrial ecosystems. Microplastic pollutants (MPs) constitute a ubiquitous global menace due to their durability, flexibility, and tough nature. MPs posed threat to the su...

Abiotic stresses like heavy metals, pesticides, salinity, drought and extreme temperatures impacting the normal growth and development of the plants and it is imperative to develop the novel methods to overcome the negative impact of abiotic stresses on the plant. Elements like cobalt, sodium, selenium and silicon are beneficial to plants, and thes...

Elevated nickel (Ni) content in soils and water cause a potential threat to food safety and human health. Owing to its numerous uses from common domestic items to industrial usage, it is vital to assess its bioavailability and speciation in the natural environment. In this review, the biogeochemical cycling of Ni in the natural environment and nume...

Background and aims: Uranium (U), a highly deleterious radionuclide, has attracted global attention because its radiotoxicity and chemical toxicity causes severe damage to terrestrial and marine organisms. In the past few decades, numerous research has been done on immobilization, tolerance, remediation approaches and sources of U in the polluted...

The anthropogenic toxic metal dissemination in surface water resources is a major ecological and public health concern at diverse scales, from the regional to the global scale. However, in the scientific literature, a review dealing with distributions, pollution levels, potential sources and related health risks of toxic metals in surface water res...

Salicylic acid (SA) has multiple functions in plants, either under optimal or environmental stress conditions. In salt-stressed plants, SA in coordination with other plant hormones (e.g., auxins, abscisic acid, gibberellins) and other signaling molecules can take part to the finely tuned regulatory network, to promote the stimulation of plant defen...

Insufficient availability of water is a major global challenge that plants face and that can cause substantial losses in plant productivity and quality, followed by complete crop failure. Thus, it becomes imperative to improve crop cultivation/production in unsuitable agricultural fields and integrate modern agri-techniques and nanoparticles (NPs)-...

As mediators in soil formation, lichens play an essential role in the physical and biological formation of the natural environment. A recent study showed that they are capable of biodegrading stone substrates in a little amount of time, despite being excluded in a geological setting. Many species, mainly those able to produce an oxalate at the thal...

Groundwater which is an essential source of freshwater for various domestic, agricultural, industrial applications is facing a severe deterioration in quality due to demographic pressure and intense industrial activities. Present study appraises the influence of human induced activities on groundwater quality of Agra-Firozabad industrial belts of W...

Heavy metal pollution is a serious threat to living organisms. Industrial development has aggravated multifaceted problems in the environment requiring a comprehensive solution. Appraisal of Metal(loids) in the Ecosystem addresses this need and provides a basic introduction of different heavy metals. Presented in a consistent and comprehensive mann...

The study was conducted to analyse the potentially toxic elements (PTEs) (Fe, Cu, Co, Mn, Zn, Ni, Cr, Se, Cd, As and Pb), and pH, phosphorus and organic carbon in roadside soils of the Punjab state, India. The results showed that Fe concentration recorded maximum, while Co concentration was found lowest among the analysed PTEs. Enrichment factor ex...

Water quality degradation and metal contamination in groundwater are serious concerns in an arid region with scanty water resources. This study aimed at evaluating the source of uranium (U) and potential health risk assessment in groundwater of the arid region of western Rajasthan and northern Gujarat. The probable source of vanadium (V) and fluori...

More than 2.5 billion people depend upon groundwater worldwide for drinking, and giving quality water has become one of the great apprehensions of human culture. The contamination of Uranium (U) and Arsenic (As) in the groundwater of India is gaining global attention. The current review provides state-of-the-art groundwater contamination with U and...

In the present paper the effectiveness of biochar-aided phytostabilization of metal/metal-loid-contaminated soil under freezing-thawing conditions and using the metal tolerating test plant Lolium perenne L. is comprehensively studied. The vegetative experiment consisted of plants cultivated for over 52 days with no exposure to freezing-thawing in a...

Boron (B) is an inimitable plant micronutrient, predominantly distinguished by super-narrow range between its deficiency and toxicity concentrations, which depends upon boron speciation in the growth media and form of living organisms. Moreover, the significant variations in its mobility amid different species, and distinctive inter and intra-speci...

Potassium (K) is an essential element for the growth and development of plants; however, its scarcity or excessive level leads to distortion of numerous functions in plants. It takes part in the control of various significant functions in plant advancement. Because of the importance index, K is regarded second after nitrogen for whole plant growth....

In agriculture, abiotic stress is one of the critical issues impacting the crop productivity and yield. Such stress factors lead to the generation of reactive oxygen species, membrane damage, and other plant metabolic activities. To neutralize the harmful effects of abiotic stress, several strategies have been employed that include the utilization...

Due to the spreading of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in Iran, restrictions and lockdown were announced to control the infection. In order to determine the effects of the lockdown period on the status of the water quality and pollution, the concentrations of Al, As, Ba, Cr, Cu, Mo, Ni, Pb, Se, and Zn, together with Na+, Mg2+, Ca2+ and electrical condu...

In response to the growing threat to the quality of the soil environment, new technologies are being developed to protect and remediate contaminated sites. A new approach, namely, assisted phytostabilization, has been used in areas contaminated with high levels of potentially toxic elements (PTEs), using various soil additives. This paper determine...

Nitric oxide (NO) is a highly diffusible gaseous signaling molecule associated with intracellular and intercellular signal transduction in plants. During abiotic stresses, beneficial role of NO has shifted our understanding from free radical species to species that help in plant subsistence. It plays potent role in various biological processes like...

Copper (Cu) is indispensable metal for both humans as well as plants when it existent in small concentration, but their undue concentration leads to harmful impacts. There exists a slight variation in positive and negative impacts of Cu in the living beings, which considerably changes with respect to their speciation, and living organisms form. Thu...

Mapping soil organic carbon (SOC) and its uncertainty are essential for agricultural soil management. The current study was carried out to quantify and map the spatial variability of SOC in an Agro-Ecosystem region (~ 170 km2) in Northeast Iran using Ordinary Kriging (OK), Empirical Bayesian Kriging (EBK), and Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) techn...

The pollution of toxic elements (TEs) in the ecosystem exhibits detrimental effects on the human health. In this paper, we debated remediation approaches for TEs polluted soils via immobilization methods employing numerous amendments with reverence to type of soil and metals, and amendment, immobilization competence, fundamental processes and field...

Communication among different species across kingdoms occurs through a chain of regulatory molecules that are transferred around cellular boundaries. These molecules are also crucial for defense, virulence and pathogenesis. In the past, the transport of proteins in long distance communication was observed, but in the present era, the discovery of e...

The spatial and temporal variations in the hydrochemistry of the Sutlej river in the Indian Punjab were studied based on water quality parameters analysed during pre- and post-monsoon seasons of the years 2017 and 2018. The grab water samples were collected from the river using stratified random sampling and analysed for pH, electrical conductivity...

The heavy metal contamination of river sediments by domestic, industrial, and agricultural waste is a major ecological and environmental problem. Therefore, heavy metal concentration and its associated risk were assessed in the sediments from the entry point of Sutlej River in Indian Punjab to its tail end when the river leaves India. The sediment...

Heavy metals (HMs) contamination in soils and sediments (river/marine) and its impact on human health have induced a global consideration due to their bioaccumulation, non-biodegradability, toxicity and perseverance. The ecological risk assessment of HMs in soils and sediments have well studied in different countries, however there are very few stu...

It is imperative to understand the pollution of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in different soils in order to determine the sustainable management approaches for soils. Potentially toxic elements (Fe, Mn, As, Pb, Zn, Ni, Cu, Cr, Co and Cd) were determined in agricultural, non-agricultural and industrial soils of Punjab, India. The concentration...

The threat posed by the degradation of the soil environment by metal (-oid)s has been lead to the improvement of existing or search for new remediation methods; in this case, the application of environmentally friendly nanomaterials falls into this trend. The study applied a technique of aided phytostabilization for the immobilization of metal (-oi...

The contamination of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in agricultural soils is a serious concern around the globe, and modelling approaches is imperative in order to determine the possible hazards linked with PTEs. These techniques accurately assess the PTEs in soil, which play a pivotal role in eliminating the weaknesses in determining PTEs in so...

The current study was designed to assess the in vivo hepatoprotective properties of trans-Anethole, which is a principal aromatic component of star anise. The hepatoprotective effects of trans-Anethole were evaluated at three doses [40, 80, and 160 mg/kg body weight (b.wt.)] against carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced hepatic damage in male Wistar...

The water quality of Sutlej river in Indian Punjab is getting deteriorated due to expansion of agricultural, industrial and recreational activities in the region. Many studies have evaluated the water quality of Sutlej river around the stretches of contaminated drains confluence with the river, but there are very few studies in which hydrochemistry...

To determine the status and sources of contamination and phytoremediation capability of Typha latifolia L. in the Bahmanshir River of Iran, the concentration of eight potentially toxic elements (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn) in sediment and plant tissues from ten sampling sites were measured. Mean concentrations of Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, and Zn in t...

We collected water samples from contaminated Buddha Nullah drain in Ludhiana district of Punjab (India) during pre- and post-monsoon seasons of the year 2017 and 2018. The soil and plant (wheat and rice) samples were also taken from fields cultivated near the water sampling sites. The drain is mainly contaminated by discharge of industrial and urba...

Several measures of ecological diversity have been defined at alpha, beta, and gamma levels and less attention has been paid to characterise their ecological dominance. In this paper, we extend the concept of negative entropy (negentropy) for the measurement of ecological dominance and diversity at the three hierarchical levels of community charact...

Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF) encodes a pleiotropic proinflammatory cytokine that plays a major role in regulating immune cells. The cytokine involved the perception of a wide spectrum of biological processes, including cell proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, lipid metabolism, and coagulation. It has also been implicated in various diseases s...

Earthworms encourage the mineralization of soil organic matter, the production of nutrients and the growth of plants through their feeding habits in the soil. But unsustainable development along with rapid urbanization and industrialization degrades the soils at an alarming rate which increases the level of different contaminants, i.e., heavy metal...

The current study was designed to assess the in vivo hepatoprotective properties of trans -Anethole and it is a principal aromatic component of star anise possessed several therapeutic properties. Results showed that CCl 4 treatment elevated the levels of different serum markers like serum glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase (SGOT) by 4.74 fold, se...

It is imperative to comprehend the level and spatial distribution of soil pollution with heavy metals to find sustainable management approaches for affected soils. Selected heavy metals (Mn, Zn, Pb, Cu, Cr, Ni, As, Co, and Cd) and physiochemical parameters were appraised for 620 samples from industrial, agricultural and urban sites in Northern Irel...

Anthropogenic activities and natural processes pollute soil and aquatic environments with high quantity of organic pollutants or substances such as pesticides, solvents, halogenated compounds, petroleum hydrocarbons, and phthalate esters. The use of traditional or conventional approaches like physical and chemical methods for remediation of these o...

Heat shock proteins (HSPs) such as HSP70A, HSP90 etc. (also known as Chaperons) play an important role in folding and unfolding of proteins, an assemblage of multiprotein complexes, transportation and sorting of proteins in subcellular compartments, cell cycle control, signaling pathways, protection against stress and programmed cell death. Studies...

Heavy Metals in the Environment: Impact, Assessment, and Remediation synthesizes both fundamental concepts of heavy metal pollutants and state-of-the-art techniques and technologies for assessment and remediation. The book discusses the sources, origin and health risk assessment of heavy metals as well as the application of GIS, remote sensing and...

Sediments act as the key storehouse of heavy metals (HMs) and play a vital function in the transport and potential discharge of HMs. Lower basins and agricultural areas are frequently inundated with various pollutants from different origins, which are categorized as constant, bioaccumulative, and unsafe pollutants. Moreover, the unrestricted develo...

Transdisciplinary approaches that provide holistic views are essential to properly understand soil processes and the importance of soil to society and will be crucial in the future to integrate distinct disciplines into soil studies. A myriad of challenges faces soil science at the beginning of the 2020s. The main aim of this overview is to assess...

The quality of water can be assessed by the analysis of its physical, chemical, and biological features. This chapter explains the use of cluster analysis, multivariate statistical methods, principal component analysis, and factor analysis for the interpretation and analysis of difficult water quality data. These techniques are useful in identifyin...

The present study aims at the amelioration of chromium Cr(VI) toxicity using ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), and to understand the interactive effects of Cr(VI) and EDTA with respect to seedling growth, lipid peroxidation as assessed from malondialdehyde, pigments and antioxidative enzymes in Hordeum vulgare L. Following multivariate statis...

Numerous physical and chemical approaches are existing for metal elimination from the soil; nonetheless, phytoremediation is regarded as one of the paramount effective and cost-friendly approach. However, ample work has been done all over the world to appraise phytoremediation capability of plants in controlled conditions; only limited studies are...

Groundwater is one of the major resources to supply the agriculture and urban water demand. Vulnerability of groundwater resources due to chemical substances is a crucial concern for groundwater quality management. The different nitrogen compounds , especially nitrate, plays an important role in groundwater quality. In last two decades, the efficie...

Salinity is a global challenge to agriculture production. Cicer arientinum L. grows under wide range of climatic conditions and is highly sensitive to salt stress. Salt stress causes osmotic, ionic and secondary stress, impairing various metabolic processes in plants and eventually results in a decline in the plant yield. The aim of the present stu...

h i g h l i g h t s The metal concentration was measured in soils and plant grains around Sutlej river. Metal concentration in soils, rice and wheat grains were higher along transboundary. The probabilistic carcinogen risk was higher in the areas along transboundary. The carcinogenic risks due to ingestion of wheat and rice grains were higher for C...

Monitoring of soil surface moisture is an imperative factor in water and energy cycle. Due to the variability of soil characteristics such as topography, vegetation, and climate dynamics, this important factor varies with respect to time and place. Measuring methods can provide soil moisture information in a wide range of short intervals with reaso...

Soil quality in urban areas is deteriorating globally due to diverse anthropogenic activities. This study assessed urban soils from Shiraz (SW Iran), a city with heterogeneous industrial activity and anthropogenic emissions. The objectives of this study were to (1) determine soil properties and concentrations of cobalt, chromium, iron and nickel an...

Copper (Cu) is an essential element for humans and plants when present in lesser amount, while in excessive amounts it exerts detrimental effects. There subsists a narrow difference amid the indispensible, positive and detrimental concentration of Cu in living system, which substantially alters with Cu speciation, and form of living organisms. Cons...

The present work was designed to study the post-infectional alterations associated with the disease progression during leaf spot disease caused by Passalora calotropidis in Calotropis procera. It is an important medicinal plant of family Apocynaceae and subfamily Asclepiadaceae. In the present work, various parameters such as leaf area, number of l...

Accumulation of heavy metals especially cobalt (Co) in agricultural fields and water bodies due to natural as well as anthropogenic factors is major concern. Although it is an important constituent of vitamin B12, yet its higher exposure produces significant ramifications in crop plants. It affects biomass and concomitantly reduces crop yield that...

Plants encounter various abiotic stresses due to their sessile nature which include heavy metals, salt, drought, nutrient deficiency , light intensity, pesticide contamination, as well as extreme temperatures. These stresses impose major constraints limiting crop production and food security worldwide. Abiotic stresses primarily reduce the photosyn...

The Sutlej river in Indian Punjab is getting contaminated by industrial waste, sewage, and agricultural runoff. Most of the previous studies on metal contamination of water are mainly confined to the small stretch of river. Therefore, a systematic study was carried out to assess spatial and temporal variability of metal contamination in water from...