From lithotroph- to organotroph-dominant: directional shift of microbial community in sulphidic tailings during phytostabilization

Abstract

Engineering microbial diversity to enhance soil functions may improve the success of direct revegetation in sulphidic mine tailings. Therefore, it is essential to explore how remediation and initial plant establishment can alter microbial communities, and, which edaphic factors control these changes under field conditions. A long-term revegetation trial was established at a Pb-Zn-Cu tailings impoundment in northwest Queensland. The control and amended and/or revegetated treatments were sampled from the 3-year-old trial. In total, 24 samples were examined using pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA genes and various chemical properties. The results showed that the microbial diversity was positively controlled by soil soluble Si and negatively controlled by soluble S, total Fe and total As, implying that pyrite weathering posed a substantial stress on microbial development in the tailings. All treatments were dominated by typical extremophiles and lithotrophs, typically Truepera, Thiobacillus, Rubrobacter; significant increases in microbial diversity, biomass and frequency of organotrophic genera (typically Nocardioides and Altererythrobacter) were detected in the revegetated and amended treatment. We concluded that appropriate phytostabilization options have the potential to drive the microbial diversity and community structure in the tailings toward those of natural soils, however, inherent environmental stressors may limit such changes.

Magnetite recovery from copper tailings increases arsenic distribution in solution phase and uptake in native grass

“…The abundance and diversity of organotrophic bacteria are favoured by the available organic C and N, but negatively affected by the presence of elevated levels of As in the CuePb/Zn tailings (Li et al, 2015a). The contribution of plant roots to the microbial mediated Fe(III) reduction cannot be ruled out, since roots increase the abundance and diversity of microbial communities in the rhizosphere and elevate enzyme activities (e.g., Fe-reductase) and organic carbon (e.g., organic acids) (Li et al, 2015b;You et al, 2016), which not only promotes bacterial growth, but biochemically interact with tailings minerals (Bais et al, 2006).…”

“…However, the toxicity of metal(loid)s (such as Cu, Pb, Zn and arsenic (As)) in the tailings is one of critical factors limiting the progress of both soil formation and the growth and survival of pioneer plants, which is commonly related to the mineralogy and geochemistry of metal mine tailings concerned (Li et al, 2015a;Li and Huang, 2015). Arsenic bearing minerals are commonly associated with Cu-ore minerals and gangue materials, such as Asbearing sulphides and sulphosalts, such as arsenopyrite (FeAsS), cobaltite (CoAsS), enargite (Cu 3 AsS 4 ) and tennantite (Cu 12 As 4 S 13 ) and resultant Cu tailings contain elevated amounts of As resulted from these minerals (Dold and Fontbot e, 2001;O'Day, 2006).…”

Effects of Amendments on Soil Microbial Diversity, Enzyme Activity and Nutrient Accumulation after Assisted Phytostabilization of an Extremely Acidic Metalliferous Mine Soil

“…Therefore, the addition of river sediment cannot only ameliorate the mine soil physic-chemical conditions (Table 1), but also speed up the shift of soil microbial community (Figure 1a). It was argued in the literature that driving factors for the evolution of a microbial community structure largely depend on the environmental gradient to which the communities are subjected or imposed under experimentally [16]. Organic C, N availability, pH, salinity and many other abiotic factors influence the microbial community in soil [37][38][39].…”

“…Sulphidic mine soils represent a typical anthropogenic extreme environment, as indicated by the much lower diversity of dwelling microbial communities relative to natural soils [16]. Dabaoshan pyrite/copper mine is a representative polymetallic mine located in Guangdong Province, southern China.…”

Microbial Community Structure in a Serpentine-Hosted Abiotic Gas Seepage at the Chimaera Ophiolite, Turkey

“…Copper was associated with the presence of Truepera, a genus within the family Trueperaceae from the phylum Deinococcus-Thermus, documented to be resistant to environmental hazards (49). This genus was present in the samples FG6, FG7, LB, BF, JSB, and FG6, all of which had relatively high concentrations of Cu.…”