China’s most typical nonferrous organic-metal facilities own specific microbial communities

Abstract

The diversity and function of microorganisms have yet to be explored at non-ferrous metal mining facilities (NMMFs), which are the world’s largest and potentially most toxic sources of co-existing metal(loid)s and flotation reagents (FRs). The diversity and inferred functions of different bacterial communities inhabiting two types of sites (active and abandoned) in Guangxi province (China) were investigated for the first time. Here we show that the structure and diversity of bacteria correlated with the types of mine sites, metal(loid)s, and FRs concentrations; and best correlated with the combination of pH, Cu, Pb, and Mn. Combined microbial coenobium may play a pivotal role in NMMFs microbial life. Arenimonas, specific in active mine sites and an acidophilic bacterium, carries functions able to cope with the extreme conditions, whereas Latescibacteria specific in abandoned sites can degrade organics. Such a bacterial consortium provides new insights to develop cost-effective remediation strategies of co-contaminated sites that currently remain intractable for bioremediation.

Bacterial diversity in typical abandoned multi-contaminated nonferrous metal(loid) tailings during natural attenuation

“…), which confirmed recent studies byLiu et al (2018) at abandoned nonferrous metal tailings sites, and by Chao et al (2016) at an abandoned . These studies reported the same or similar dominant bacterial communities (at the phylum level), despite differences in pH and geochemical factors of the tailings.…”

“…Knowledge of the colonization of microbial communities during natural attenuation in mine tailings is limited (Bruneel et al, 2008;Volant et al, 2014;Zhan and Sun, 2014;Chao et al, 2016), particularly in the Guangxi area where only three tailings sites (Pb-Zn and Mn sites) have been investigated (Jin et al, 2015;Liu et al, 2014;Li et al, 2015). Recent results show that the distribution of bacterial communities in Guangxi nonferrous metal(loid)s tailings was best correlated with the combination of pH, Cu, Pb, and Mn, suggesting that these parameters influence the organization of bacterial communities (Liu et al, 2018). However, the modification of bacterial communities during natural attenuation in undisturbed nonferrous metal(loid) tailings is still uninvestigated.…”

“…The limit of detection (LOD) for T-Ms was > 0.10×10 -3 mg/kg (Liu et al, 2018) and for H-Ms was > 0.10 mg/kg (Wang, 2018), according to the China Environmental Monitoring Technical guideline (HJ 168-2010). The recoveries were between 85% -110%.…”

“…It is a karst landform with many ecologically sensitive areas and is located upstream of the Pearl River Basin (China's third longest river and second largest by volume) (Wang et al, 2007). In Guangxi, different mining activities release waste that results in the formation of tailings with heterogeneous composition containing high concentrations of metal(loid)s and flotation reagents (Liu et al, 2018). Such level of multi-component contamination is probably more serious than many other areas in the world (Zhu et al, 2018).…”

Novel arsenic hyper-resistant bacteria from an extreme environment, Crven Dol mine, Allchar, North Macedonia

“…The Isolates 2, 3 and 4 were obtained as pure bacterial cultures. belong to bacterial phyla known for their capacity to survive in As-rich ecosystem (Liu et al, 2018). The phylogenetic tree shows that the two strains (Isolates 3 and 4) belonging to the genus Microbacterium were clearly separated (Fig.…”