Editing Bioaugmentation (section)

===Soil remediation===
{{see|soil remediation}}
Bioaugmentation is favorable in contaminated soils that have undergone bioremediation, but still pose an environmental risk. This is because microorganisms that were originally in the environment did not accomplish their task during [[bioremediation]] when it came to breaking down chemicals in the [[contaminated soil]]. The failure of original bacteria can be caused by environmental stresses, as well as changes in the microbial population due to mutation rates. When microorganisms are added, they are potentially more suited to the nature of the new contaminant, meanwhile the older microorganisms are similar to the older pollution and contamination.<ref name="vogel" /> However, this is merely one of many factors; site size is also a very important determinant. In order to see whether bioaugmentation should be implemented, the overall setting must be considered.  Also, some highly specialized microorganisms are not capable of adapting to certain site settings. Availability of certain microorganism types (as used for bioremediation) may also be a problem.  Although bioaugmentation may appear to be a perfect solution for contaminated soil, it can have drawbacks.  For example, the wrong type of bacteria can result in potentially clogged aquifers, or the remediation result may be incomplete or unsatisfactory.<ref name=vogel>{{cite journal|author=Vogel, Timothy M.|title=Bioaugmentation as a soil bioremediation approach|journal=Current Opinion in Biotechnology|volume=7|issue=3 |year=1996|pages=311–316|pmid=8785436|doi=10.1016/s0958-1669(96)80036-x}}</ref>