Environmental Sustainability, Biogeochemistry, and Microbial-Mediated Pollutant Fate: Implications for Long-Term Remediation

The increase in environmental pollution over the past few years due to rapid industrialization and unsafe agricultural practices has become a global challenge. The presence of toxic pollutants such as nuclear waste, heavy metals, pesticides, and hydrocarbons has threatened both the environment and human health. Microbial community-based bioremediation is emerging as a promising, environmentally friendly, and cost-effective strategy to reduce the impact of these toxic pollutants. Traditional physicochemical remediation methods are often costly, invasive, and inefficient, emphasizing the need for sustainable alternatives. This narrative review surveys the current peer-reviewed literature (2020-2025) to identify significant advances in microbial consortia engineering, biofilm- and biochar-supported systems, evolutionary adaptation of degraders, and applications across various pollutant categories. Microbial-mediated biogeochemical processes have become a promising solution, offering environmentally friendly, scalable, and versatile approaches for long-term environmental restoration. Microbial remediation shows several converging trends. Engineered microbial consortia have demonstrated excellent degradation of complex mixtures compared to monocultures. Biochar, as one of the adsorptive carriers, improves pollutant immobilization and supports microbial survival. Microbial communities adapt by enlisting enzymes and rewiring regulatory pathways under pollutant stress, thereby increasing their degradative potential. There is also a growing focus on emerging contaminants and enzymatic degradation pathways. However, environmental limitations such as the presence of co-contaminants, metals, surfactants, and limited bioavailability remain significant barriers. Long-term viability, large-scale implementation, and the fate of hazardous intermediates remain poorly understood and advancing this field requires integrating ecological, evolutionary, and materials science knowledge, with future research focusing on field validation, fate tracking, and combined strategies for complex and mixed-pollutant environments.