Sulfur-Rich Caves of Southern Tabasco, Mexico

Hose, Louise D.; Rosales-Lagarde, Laura

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-53348-3_54

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…The entrance to Luna Azufre is located 320 meters southeast from Villa Luz, and Luna Azufre has over 500 m of passage in the same formation. Both caves are fed by phreatic water containing up to 15 mM H 2 S( aq ) that could originate either from nearby volcanic or petroleum sources (30, 49, 50). The Frasassi Caves are located 3 km southeast of Genga in the Marche region, Italy, and contain over 25 km of passage in a Jurassic platform limestone.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Convergent community assembly among globally separated acidic cave biofilms

Jones

Schaperdoth

Northup

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Acidophilic bacteria and archaea inhabit extreme geochemical 'islands' that can tell us when and how geographic barriers affect the biogeography of microorganisms. Here we describe microbial communities from extremely acidic (pH 0-1) biofilms known as 'snottites' from hydrogen sulfide-rich caves around the world. Given the extreme acidity and subsurface location of these biofilms, and in light of earlier work showing strong geographic patterns among snottite Acidithiobacillus populations, we investigated their structure and diversity in order to understand how geography might impact community assembly. We used 16S rRNA gene cloning and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) to investigate 26 snottite samples from four sulfidic caves in Italy and Mexico. All samples had very low biodiversity and were dominated by sulfur-oxidizing bacteria in the genus Acidithiobacillus. Ferroplasma and other archaea in the Thermoplasmatales ranged from 0 to 50% of total cells, and relatives of the bacterial genera Acidimicrobium and Ferrimicrobium were up to 15% of total cells. Rare phylotypes included Sulfobacillus spp. and members of the Dependentiae and Saccharibacteria (formerly TM6 and TM7). Although the same genera of acidophiles occurred in snottites on separate continents, most members of those genera represent substantially divergent populations with 16S rRNA genes that are only 95-98% similar. Our findings are consistent with a model of community assembly where sulfidic caves are stochastically colonized by microorganisms from local sources, which are strongly filtered through selection for extreme acid tolerance, and these different colonization histories are maintained by dispersal restrictions within and among caves.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Convergent community assembly among globally separated acidic cave biofilms

Jones

Schaperdoth

Northup

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…Bassanite is metastable and can be formed by the dehydration of gypsum at temperatures of at least 368 K (Strydom et al, 1995), by the rapid quenching of calcium sulfate solutions, or as a precursor phase to gypsum (Tritschler et al, 2015). Terrestrially, sulfates can form during the evaporation of brines (Hardie & Eugster, 1970) or from a series of reactions, whereby sulfides (e.g., pyrrhotite) dissolve in water to form H 2 S that is then oxidized to SO 4 2− , which in turn reacts with calcium carbonate in a hydrous environment to form calcium sulfates (Galdenzi & Maruoka, 2003;Hose & Rosales-Lagarde, 2017;Pirlet et al, 2010). This reaction is exemplified by Equations 1-3, derived from Pirlet et al (2010), which assume that pyrrhotite is the sulfide being altered and that the oxidization product is magnetite; oxidation of pyrrhotite to magnetite can result from the alteration of carbonaceous chondrites by water (Trigo-Rodrıǵuez et al, 2019).…”

Section: Calcium Sulfatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Winchcombe: An example of rapid terrestrial alteration of a CM chondrite

Jenkins

Lee

Daly

et al. 2023

Meteorit & Planetary Scien

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Winchcombe is a CM chondrite that fell in England on February 28, 2021. Its rapid retrieval was well characterized. Within two polished sections of Winchcombe, terrestrial phases were observed. Calcite and calcium sulfates were found in a sample recovered from a field on March 6, 2021, and halite was observed on a sample months after its recovery from a driveway on March 2, 2021. These terrestrial phases were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. Calcite veins crosscut the fusion crust and therefore postdate it. The calcite likely precipitated in the damp environment (sheep field) where the meteorite lay for six days prior to its retrieval. The sulfates occur on the edges of the sample and were identified as three minerals: gypsum, bassanite, and anhydrite. Given that the sulfates occur only on the sample's edges, including on top of the fusion crust, they formed after Winchcombe fell. Sulfate precipitation is attributed to the damp fall environment, likely resulted from sulfide-derived H 2 S reacting with calcite within the meteorite. Halite occurs as euhedral crystals only on the surface of a polished section and exclusively in areas relatively enriched in sodium. It was likely produced by the interaction of the polished rock slice with the humid laboratory air over a period of months. The sulfates, fusion crust calcite, and halite all post-date Winchcombe's entry into the Earth's atmosphere and showcase how rapidly meteorite falls can be terrestrially altered.

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“…This process was first proposed by Principi [2] and is used to describe the formation of caves via dissolution of limestone by sulfidic groundwaters. Among the most well-known and investigated SAS caves are those from Guadalupe Mountains, USA [3,4], Movile, Romania [5], Frasassi, Italy [6,7], Cueva de Villa Luz, Mexico [8,9], and Lower Kane Cave, USA [10,11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Surface runoff alters cave microbial community structure and function

Davis

Messina²,

Nicolosi

et al. 2020

PLoS ONE

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Caves formed by sulfuric acid dissolution have been identified worldwide. These caves can host diverse microbial communities that are responsible for speleogenesis and speleothem formation. It is not well understood how microbial communities change in response to surface water entering caves. Illumina 16S rRNA sequencing and bioinformatic tools were used to determine the impact of surface water on the microbial community diversity and function within a spring pool found deep in the Monte Conca Cave system in Sicily, Italy. Sulfur oxidizers comprised more than 90% of the microbial community during the dry season and were replaced by potential anthropogenic contaminants such as Escherichia and Lysinibacillus species after heavy rains. One sampling date appeared to show a transition between the wet and dry seasons when potential anthropogenic contaminants (67.3%), sulfur-oxidizing bacteria (13.6%), and nitrogen-fixing bacteria (6.5%) were all present within the spring pool.

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Sulfur-Rich Caves of Southern Tabasco, Mexico

Cited by 5 publications

References 15 publications

Convergent community assembly among globally separated acidic cave biofilms

Convergent community assembly among globally separated acidic cave biofilms

Winchcombe: An example of rapid terrestrial alteration of a CM chondrite

Surface runoff alters cave microbial community structure and function

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