Effective Strategies for Enhancing Microbial Remediation of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Soil

As a class of recalcitrant and long-lived organic pollutants, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are widely distributed in the soil environment, where they pose a growing threat to human and ecosystem health. With the growing demand for green soil remediation approaches, microbial degradation methods have attracted increasing attention. However, microbial degradation usually faces challenges such as low degradation efficiency and long cycle time. To help researchers address these problems, this review outlines the microbial sources of degradable PAHs, systematically discusses the factors affecting the microbial degradation of PAHs in soil, summarizes the current major strategies used to enhance it, and provides an outlook on future research directions. Overall, the aim is to provide theoretical support and practical guidance for the development of efficient and safe soil PAH bioremediation technologies.