Effects of heavy metals on bacterial community surrounding Bijiashan mining area located in northwest China

Abstract

Heavy metal (HM) pollution is a severe and common environmental problem in mining area soil. It is imperative to understand the micro ecological characteristics of mining area soil for HM contaminated soil remediation. This study described the effects of HM pollution level and soil physical and chemical parameters on microbial diversity. In this study, high-throughput sequencing technology was used to study the effects of HM pollution on the diversity and composition of the soil microbial community. The soil groups were barren, exhibiting alkaline pH, low total nitrogen (TN), and total potassium (TK) according to soil fertility standard. Compared with the control group, there was severe multiple HM pollution in the other five groups, including lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), zinc (Zn), and copper (Cu). The dominant phyla accounting for more than 1% of the overall community in all soil groups were Proteobacteria (34.432 ± 7.478%), Actinobacteria (22.947 ± 4.297%), Acidobacteria (10.47 ± 2.439%), Chloroflexi (7.89 ± 2.980%), Planctomycetota (5.993 ± 1.558%), Bacteroidota (4.275 ± 1.980%), Cyanobacteria (3.478 ± 2.196%), Myxococcus (2.888 ± 0.822%), Gemmatimonadota (2.448 ± 0.447%), Firmicutes (1.193 ± 0.634%), Patescibacteria (0.435 ± 0.813%), and Nitrospirota (0.612 ± 0.468%). Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria were predominant at the phylum level, which showed a certain tolerance to HMs. In addition, redundancy analysis (RDA) results showed that Pb, Cu, Zn, and Cd were strongly correlated with each other (P < 0.01). Other nutrient elements (except for TK) were significantly positively correlated with each other. Cu and nutrient element TK had an important impact on bacterial community structure. Therefore, bacteria with the function of HM tolerance and bioremediation in extreme environments should be researched, which provides a foundation for future ecological remediation of contaminated soil by using microbial remediation technology.

Toxicity evaluation of a heavy‐metal‐polluted river: Pollution identification and bacterial community assessment

“…TN and TP are major nutrient sources for bacteria in sediments. When sediments contain significant amounts of heavy metals or polluted by heavy metals, heavy-metal-tolerant bacteria would result in nutrients mobilization (Liu et al, 2022). Thus, both nutrients and heavy metals would also affect the composition of bacterial diversities and communities (Liu et al, 2022).…”

“…When sediments contain significant amounts of heavy metals or polluted by heavy metals, heavy-metal-tolerant bacteria would result in nutrients mobilization (Liu et al, 2022). Thus, both nutrients and heavy metals would also affect the composition of bacterial diversities and communities (Liu et al, 2022). High concentrations of TN and TP were found in Salt River sediments, which contributed to the reproduction and metabolism of bacteria.…”

Characterization of Microbial Communities in Wastewater Treatment Plants Containing Heavy Metals Located in Chemical Industrial Zones

“…The HMs of Cu, Pb, and Fe presented a strong positive correlation with the phyla Chloroflexi and Firmicutes but were significantly negatively correlated with Proteobacteria . Earlier reports showed that Cd, Pb, and/or Zn were significantly positively correlated with the abundances of Chloroflexi [ 42 ], Firmicutes [ 43 ], and Patescibacteria [ 44 ], but significantly negatively correlated with the abundance of the Proteobacteria in wastewater treatment. Our findings are similar to these results.…”

Biotechnology of Microorganisms from Coal Environments: From Environmental Remediation to Energy Production

“…A number of bacterial communities with good heavy metal tolerance and bioremediation potential in extreme environments have been discovered and characterized through high-throughput sequencing technology. According to Liu et al, metal-tolerant Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria are predominant at the phylum level in mining area soils [ 167 ]. The study by Ma et al [ 168 ] indicated that acidic coal gangue was relatively rich with SRB, containing six genera: Desulfosporosinus , Desulfovibrio , Desulfotomaculum , Desulfobulbus , Desulfitobacterium , and Desulfurella .…”