Mineral Transformation and Biomass Accumulation Associated With Uranium Bioremediation at Rifle, Colorado

Li, Li; Steefel, Carl I.; Williams, Kenneth H.; Wilkins, Michael J.; Hubbard, Susan S.

doi:10.1021/es900016v

Cited by 95 publications

(103 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Calcite precipitation in porous media can be observed in situ by conventional monitoring approaches using geochemical analyses of borehole samples (Scheibe et al 2006;Li et al 2009Li et al , 2011. Geochemical borehole data give accurate measurements of the water chemical composition associated with calcite precipitation but they are time consuming, not continuous in time, invasive and spatially limited to the location of the boreholes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling the evolution of complex conductivity during calcite precipitation on glass beads

Leroy

Li²,

Jougnot

et al. 2017

Geophys. J. Int.

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S U M M A R YWhen pH and alkalinity increase, calcite frequently precipitates and hence modifies the petrophysical properties of porous media. The complex conductivity method can be used to directly monitor calcite precipitation in porous media because it is sensitive to the evolution of the mineralogy, pore structure and its connectivity. We have developed a mechanistic grain polarization model considering the electrochemical polarization of the Stern and diffuse layers surrounding calcite particles. Our complex conductivity model depends on the surface charge density of the Stern layer and on the electrical potential at the onset of the diffuse layer, which are computed using a basic Stern model of the calcite/water interface. The complex conductivity measurements of Wu et al. on a column packed with glass beads where calcite precipitation occurs are reproduced by our surface complexation and complex conductivity models. The evolution of the size and shape of calcite particles during the calcite precipitation experiment is estimated by our complex conductivity model. At the early stage of the calcite precipitation experiment, modelled particles sizes increase and calcite particles flatten with time because calcite crystals nucleate at the surface of glass beads and grow into larger calcite grains. At the later stage of the calcite precipitation experiment, modelled sizes and cementation exponents of calcite particles decrease with time because large calcite grains aggregate over multiple glass beads and only small calcite crystals polarize.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling the evolution of complex conductivity during calcite precipitation on glass beads

Leroy

Li²,

Jougnot

et al. 2017

Geophys. J. Int.

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“…The aquifer has been heavily studied from the perspective of fluid flow modeling, reactive transport of contaminants and microbial community response to acetate injection to stimulate bioremediation through uranium reduction (for example, Chang et al, 2005;Yabusaki et al, 2007;Li et al, 2009;Wilkins et al, 2009). Recent metagenomic characterization of the sediment and groundwaterassociated communities identified diverse assemblages of low-abundance organisms, many of which represent previously unsequenced lineages on the tree of life (Wrighton et al, 2012;Castelle et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aquifer environment selects for microbial species cohorts in sediment and groundwater

Hug

Thomas

Brown³

et al. 2015

The ISME Journal

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Little is known about the biogeography or stability of sediment-associated microbial community membership because these environments are biologically complex and generally difficult to sample. High-throughput-sequencing methods provide new opportunities to simultaneously genomically sample and track microbial community members across a large number of sampling sites or times, with higher taxonomic resolution than is associated with 16 S ribosomal RNA gene surveys, and without the disadvantages of primer bias and gene copy number uncertainty. We characterized a sediment community at 5 m depth in an aquifer adjacent to the Colorado River and tracked its most abundant 133 organisms across 36 different sediment and groundwater samples. We sampled sites separated by centimeters, meters and tens of meters, collected on seven occasions over 6 years. Analysis of 1.4 terabase pairs of DNA sequence showed that these 133 organisms were more consistently detected in saturated sediments than in samples from the vadose zone, from distant locations or from groundwater filtrates. Abundance profiles across aquifer locations and from different sampling times identified organism cohorts that comprised subsets of the 133 organisms that were consistently associated. The data suggest that cohorts are partly selected for by shared environmental adaptation.

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“…Sometimes stimulation can have negative implications for U(VI) reduction, such as the growth of Desulfobacter spp., which are unable to reduce U(VI) but utilize acetate, often compete with U(VI)-reducing bacteria for electron donors supplied at limiting concentrations (Lovley et al 1993;Williams et al 2011). Also, excess growth can cause permeability reduction within the delivery zone resulting from biomass buildup (Li et al 2009;Williams et al 2011) thus increasing biofouling which may result in a zone in which biostimulation is diminished.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Uranium reduction and microbial community development in response to stimulation with different electron donors

Barlett

Moon

Peacock³

et al. 2012

Biodegradation

Self Cite

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Stimulating microbial reduction of soluble U(VI) to less soluble U(IV) shows promise as an in situ bioremediation strategy for uranium contaminated groundwater, but the optimal electron donors for promoting this process have yet to be identified. The purpose of this study was to better understand how the addition of various electron donors to uraniumcontaminated subsurface sediments affected U(VI) reduction and the composition of the microbial community. The simple electron donors, acetate or lactate, or the more complex donors, hydrogen-release compound (HRC) or vegetable oil, were added to the sediments incubated in flow-through columns. The composition of the microbial communities was evaluated with quantitative PCR probing specific 16S rRNA genes and functional genes, phospholipid fatty acid analysis, and clone libraries. All the electron donors promoted U(VI) removal, even though the composition of the microbial communities was different with each donor. In general, the overall biomass, rather than the specific bacterial species, was the factor most related to U(VI) removal. -Vegetable oil and HRC were more effective in stimulating U(VI) removal than acetate. These results suggest that the addition of more complex organic electron donors could be an excellent option for in situ bioremediation of uranium-contaminated groundwater.

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Mineral Transformation and Biomass Accumulation Associated With Uranium Bioremediation at Rifle, Colorado

Abstract: One sentence synopsis: Acetate injection for uranium bioremediation leads to the modification of the porosity of subsurface materials through the accumulation of new mineral phases and biomass.

Cited by 95 publications

References 33 publications

Modeling the evolution of complex conductivity during calcite precipitation on glass beads

Modeling the evolution of complex conductivity during calcite precipitation on glass beads

Aquifer environment selects for microbial species cohorts in sediment and groundwater

Uranium reduction and microbial community development in response to stimulation with different electron donors

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