Which term describes the use of living organisms to remove or neutralize pollutants from a contaminated environment?

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Bioremediation is using living organisms to remove or neutralize pollutants from a contaminated environment. Microbes like bacteria and fungi, or plants used in phyto-remediation, can metabolize, transform, or sequester contaminants, turning toxins into less harmful forms or trapping them so they no longer pose a risk. This approach works in soils, water, and groundwater and can address a wide range of pollutants.

Biostimulation, by contrast, is about boosting the activity of existing cleanup microbes—usually by adding nutrients, oxygen, or electron acceptors—to accelerate an ongoing bioremediation process. It’s a technique that supports bioremediation, not the term for using organisms to clean up pollutants itself.

Bioaccumulation refers to contaminants building up in an organism over time, which is a concern for ecological and human health, not a cleanup method.

Biodiffusion isn’t a standard term for environmental cleanup; diffusion describes passive spreading, not the intentional use of organisms to remove pollutants.

So the term describing the use of living organisms to remove or neutralize pollutants is bioremediation.