Use of Anaerobic Digestate as Soil Amendment for Fungi Inoculation in Soil Remediation: A Systematic Review

The need to research cost-effective alternatives for soil remediation has become an important topic in the recent years. Pollutants like heavy metals or pharmaceuticals are constantly being accumulated in soils, becoming hazardous for the environment, espe-cially if they reach human or animal food-chain. On the other side, the accumulation of anaerobic digestate resulting from the biogas production process, could also represent a latent risk, due to its discharge as biofertilizers, whereas high quantities of nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P) contained are accumulated. Digestate inoculation by means of fungi represents a cost-effective alternative to treat both, contaminated soils and anaerobic digestate. Through the present systematic review, scientific researches per-formed during the past ten years were summarized. Focus of this research was to un-derstand the impacts of fungi and anaerobic digestate as soil amendment, for contam-inant removal and plant growth. Soil stabilization and remediation showed to have a higher impact than plant growth itself. The origin of the biomass used for anaerobic digestion is very important to determine digestate quality and effect in the soil, being cattle manure more suitable for remediation purposes. Fungal strain, pH, temperature, and existing contaminants must be considered before a successfully practical applica-tion takes place.