Microbial Diversity in Anaerobic Sediments at Río Tinto, a Naturally Acidic Environment with a High Heavy Metal Content

Sánchez‐Andrea, Irene; Rodríguez, Núria; Amils, Ricardo; Sanz, J. L.

doi:10.1128/aem.00654-11

Cited by 181 publications

(135 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…For example, sulphur/sulphide-oxidising (e.g., Thiomicrospira and Sulfolobus [28,29]) and iron(II)-oxidising bacteria (e.g., Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans [2,30]) are known to increase the oxidation of sulphide minerals, thus accelerating the AMD generation, while iron-and sulphate-reducing bacteria [2,30,31] can potentially slow the AMD process. Investigation of the microbial communities in synthetic and natural waste KLC tests, treated with a range of organic amendments, is underway to more fully define the interplay of geochemistry and microbial actions and how this may be manipulated for more effective AMD control.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategies for Reduced Acid and Metalliferous Drainage by Pyrite Surface Passivation

Qian

Schumann²,

et al. 2017

Minerals

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Acid and metalliferous drainage (AMD) is broadly accepted to be a major global environmental problem facing the mining industry, requiring expensive management and mitigation. A series of laboratory-scale kinetic leach column (KLC) experiments, using both synthetic and natural mine wastes, were carried out to test the efficacy of our pyrite passivation strategy (developed from previous research) for robust and sustainable AMD management. For the synthetic waste KLC tests, initial treatment with lime-saturated water was found to be of paramount importance for maintaining long-term circum-neutral pH, favourable for the formation and preservation of the pyrite surface passivating layer and reduced acid generation rate. Following the initial lime-saturated water treatment, minimal additional alkalinity (calcite-saturated water) was required to maintain circum-neutral pH for the maintenance of pyrite surface passivation. KLC tests examining natural potentially acid forming (PAF) waste, with much greater peak acidity than that of the synthetic waste, blended with lime (≈2 wt %) with and without natural non-acid-forming (NAF) waste covers, were carried out. The addition of lime and use of NAF covers maintained circum-neutral leachate pH up to 24 weeks. During this time, the net acidity generated was found to be significantly reduced by the overlying NAF cover. If the reduced rate of acidity production from the natural PAF waste is sustained, the addition of smaller (more economically-feasible) amounts of lime, together with application of NAF wastes as covers, could be trialled as a potential cost-effective AMD mitigation strategy.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategies for Reduced Acid and Metalliferous Drainage by Pyrite Surface Passivation

Qian

Schumann²,

et al. 2017

Minerals

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“…In metal-rich, low-pH ecosystems associated with pyrite ores, several species of Archaea have been identified via clone library analysis (4,10,11,51,58), metagenomic sequencing (6,59), and isolation (24,29). Archaea have also been identified as members of consortia used in bioleaching systems for metal recovery (46).…”

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confidence: 99%

Heterotrophic Archaea Contribute to Carbon Cycling in Low-pH, Suboxic Biofilm Communities

Justice

Pan

Mueller

et al. 2012

Appl Environ Microbiol

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bArchaea are widely distributed and yet are most often not the most abundant members of microbial communities. Here, we document a transition from Bacteria-to Archaea-dominated communities in microbial biofilms sampled from the Richmond Mine acid mine drainage (AMD) system (ϳpH 1.0, ϳ38°C) and in laboratory-cultivated biofilms. This transition occurs when chemoautotrophic microbial communities that develop at the air-solution interface sink to the sediment-solution interface and degrade under microaerobic and anaerobic conditions. The archaea identified in these sunken biofilms are from the class Thermoplasmata, and in some cases, the highly divergent ARMAN nanoarchaeal lineage. In several of the sunken biofilms, nanoarchaea comprise 10 to 25% of the community, based on fluorescent in situ hybridization and metagenomic analyses. Comparative community proteomic analyses show a persistence of bacterial proteins in sunken biofilms, but there is clear evidence for amino acid modifications due to acid hydrolysis. Given the low representation of bacterial cells in sunken biofilms based on microscopy, we infer that hydrolysis reflects proteins derived from lysed cells. For archaea, we detected ϳ2,400 distinct proteins, including a subset involved in proteolysis and peptide uptake. Laboratory cultivation experiments using complex carbon substrates demonstrated anaerobic enrichment of Ferroplasma and Aplasma coupled to the reduction of ferric iron. These findings indicate dominance of acidophilic archaea in degrading biofilms and suggest that they play roles in anaerobic nutrient cycling at low pH.

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“…With re gard to chem ical com po si tion, they are sim i lar to other widely dis cussed oc cur rences of AMD (Murad et al, 1994;Web ster et al, 1994;Leduc et al, 2002;Joeckel et al, 2005). Limno logi cal, mi cro bi o log i cal and hydrogeochemical stud ies of such res er voirs, formed in py rite mines near Rio Tinto in the "Span ish Py rite Belt", have been pub lished by Sánchez-EspaÔa et al (2008), González-Toril et al (2011) andSánchez-Andrea et al (2011). Wa ter from these res er voirs is charac ter ized by phys i cal and chem i cal prop erties sim i lar to those found in the work ings of the Wieoeciszowice mine.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 56%

Geomicrobiology of Acid Mine Drainage in the weathering zone of pyrite-bearing schists in the Rudawy Janowickie Mountains (Poland)

Borkowski

Parafiniuk

Wolicka

et al. 2013

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We re port geomicrobiological anal y sis of acid wa ter res er voirs and Acid Mine Drain age (AMD) de vel oped in the weath er ing zone of py rite-bear ing schists near the closed-down py rite mine in Wieoeciszowice (southwest ern Po land). The anal y sis focused on two res er voirs char ac ter ized by dif fer ent phys i cal and chem i cal prop er ties (pH, re dox po ten tial, con tent of sulphates and heavy met als), em pha siz ing geomicrobiological re la tion ships tak ing place in this AMD set ting and de scrib ing the mi cro bi o log i cal pro cesses that sig nif i cantly in flu ence biogeochemical cy cles of sul phur and iron in the wa ter res er voirs ana lysed. The res er voir wa ter also har bours nu mer ous large, or ga nized mi cro bial struc tures in the form of stream ers, studied in de tail here us ing op ti cal and elec tron mi cros copy and by mi cro bi o log i cal cul ti va tion and mo lec u lar meth ods. The Wieoeciszowice mine slime stream ers are char ac ter ized by the co-oc cur rence of typ i cal chemolithoautotrophic mi cro or ganisms ox i diz ing sul phur and iron to gether with sul phate-re duc ing bac te ria. These struc tures prob a bly de pend on the oc currence of iron(II) in the sur round ing en vi ron ment.

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Microbial Diversity in Anaerobic Sediments at Río Tinto, a Naturally Acidic Environment with a High Heavy Metal Content

Cited by 181 publications

References 55 publications

Strategies for Reduced Acid and Metalliferous Drainage by Pyrite Surface Passivation

Strategies for Reduced Acid and Metalliferous Drainage by Pyrite Surface Passivation

Heterotrophic Archaea Contribute to Carbon Cycling in Low-pH, Suboxic Biofilm Communities

Geomicrobiology of Acid Mine Drainage in the weathering zone of pyrite-bearing schists in the Rudawy Janowickie Mountains (Poland)

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