The co-importance of physical mixing and biogeochemical consumption in controlling water cap oxygen levels in Base Mine Lake

Arriaga, D.; Nelson, Tara Colenbrander; Risacher, F.; Morris, P.; Goad, Corey; Slater, G. F.; Warren, Lesley A.

doi:10.1016/j.apgeochem.2019.104442

Cited by 15 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Oil sands (bituminous sands) deposits are mined for petroleum and generate large volumes of waste that produce methane, hydrogen sulfide and ammonia 20 . The oil sands reclamation pit lake of Base Mine Lake (BML) in Alberta (Canada) was constructed by placing a layer of water over a tailings deposit, with the long-term goal of developing a lake ecosystem supported by a stable water-cap oxic zone, which would permit the oxidation of methane, hydrogen sulfide and ammonia.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large freshwater phages with the potential to augment aerobic methane oxidation

et al. 2020

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There is growing evidence that phages with unusually large genomes are common across various microbiomes, but little is known about their genetic inventories or potential ecosystem impacts. In the present study, we reconstructed large phage genomes from freshwater lakes known to contain bacteria that oxidize methane. Of manually curated genomes, 22 (18 are complete), ranging from 159 kilobase (kb) to 527 kb in length, were found to encode the pmoC gene, an enzymatically critical subunit of the particulate methane monooxygenase, the predominant methane oxidation catalyst in nature. The phage-associated PmoC sequences show high similarity to (>90%), and affiliate phylogenetically with, those of coexisting bacterial methanotrophs, including members of Methyloparacoccus, Methylocystis and Methylobacter spp. In addition, pmoC-phage abundance patterns correlate with those of the coexisting bacterial methanotrophs, supporting host–phage relationships. Future work is needed to determine whether phage-associated PmoC has similar functions to additional copies of PmoC encoded in bacterial genomes, thus contributing to growth on methane. Transcriptomics data from Lake Rotsee (Switzerland) showed that some phage-associated pmoC genes were highly expressed in situ and, of interest, that the most rapidly growing methanotroph was infected by three pmoC-phages. Thus, augmentation of bacterial methane oxidation by pmoC-phages during infection could modulate the efflux of this potent greenhouse gas into the environment.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large freshwater phages with the potential to augment aerobic methane oxidation

et al. 2020

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“…In 2016, water-column and FFT samples were also collected by a fixed interval sampler, described in Dompierre et al (2016). Profiles of the physiochemical characteristics (pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen concentration and % saturation, specific conductivity, ORP, turbidity, and salinity) were measured from the BML surface to the FFT-water interface (FWI) at ~50 cm intervals, using a YSI Professional Plus 6-Series Sonde (YSI Incorporated), as per Risacher et al (2018), and Arriaga et al (2019). These profiles were used to identify the sampling depths for each sampling campaign.…”

Section: Sampling Locations and Frequencymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The same transport processes can also deliver organic carbon constituents (e.g., residual petroleum hydrocarbons) from the FFT to the water column that may be consumed by aerobic heterotrophic microbes, alongside the heterotrophic consumption of any photosynthetically produced dissolved organic carbon (DOC). Indeed, Risacher et al (2018), and Arriaga et al (2019) found that the oxygen concentrations and distribution in the BML water column, during early time points in lake development (2015-2016), were correlated with methane concentrations and the rates of the downward physical mixing of the oxygen supply and depth-dependent consumption. Their results imply that FFT-associated microbial methane production, the mobilization to, and the subsequent oxidation within the water cap, was playing an important role in influencing the oxygen concentrations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, oxygen supports the microbial degradation of potentially hazardous organic compounds, such as naphthenic acids (NAs), present in the oil sands' process-affected water and associated with fluid tailings [4]. However, the oxygen supplied by physical and biological processes can be microbially depleted via reactions with methane and other oxygen-consuming constituents released from fluid tailings [5][6][7]. On the basis of observations from tailing ponds and laboratory studies, microbial methanogenesis is presumed to be continuing to produce methane within the FFT underlying BML [8][9][10][11][12][13] (Figure 1).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Isotopic and Chemical Assessment of the Dynamics of Methane Sources and Microbial Cycling during Early Development of an Oil Sands Pit Lake

et al. 2021

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Water-capped tailings technology (WCTT) is a key component of the reclamation strategies in the Athabasca oil sands region (AOSR) of northeastern Alberta, Canada. The release of microbial methane from tailings emplaced within oil sands pit lakes, and its subsequent microbial oxidation, could inhibit the development of persistent oxygen concentrations within the water column, which are critical to the success of this reclamation approach. Here, we describe the results of a four-year (2015–2018) chemical and isotopic (δ13C) investigation into the dynamics of microbial methane cycling within Base Mine Lake (BML), the first full-scale pit lake commissioned in the AOSR. Overall, the water-column methane concentrations decreased over the course of the study, though this was dynamic both seasonally and annually. Phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) distributions and δ13C demonstrated that dissolved methane, primarily input via fluid fine tailings (FFT) porewater advection, was oxidized by the water column microbial community at all sampling times. Modeling and under-ice observations indicated that the dissolution of methane from bubbles during ebullition, or when trapped beneath ice, was also an important source of dissolved methane. The addition of alum to BML in the fall of 2016 impacted the microbial cycling in BML, leading to decreased methane oxidation rates, the short-term dominance of a phototrophic community, and longer-term shifts in the microbial community metabolism. Overall, our results highlight a need to understand the dynamic nature of these microbial communities and the impact of perturbations on the associated biogeochemical cycling within oil sands pit lakes.

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“…Dissolved O2 is present throughout the water column, from 70-85% of saturation at the top of the metalimnion (4-6 m) to 1-5% saturation at the sediment interface (7). The hypolimnion remains somewhat oxic due to physical mixing processes from the epilimnion (16,17). These methane/O2 counter gradients indicate that active aerobic methane oxidation occurs in the metalimnion, hypolimnion and sediment-water interface of BML.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal Dynamics of Methanotrophic Bacteria in a Boreal Oil Sands End Pit Lake

Albakistani

Nwosu

Furgason

et al. 2022

Appl Environ Microbiol

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Base Mine Lake (BML) is the first full-scale demonstration end pit lake for the oil sands mining industry in Canada. We examined aerobic methanotrophic bacteria over all seasons for five years in this dimictic lake. Methanotrophs comprised up to 58% of all bacterial reads in 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing analyses (median 2.8%), and up to 2.7 × 10 4 cells mL −1 of water (median 0.5 × 10 3 ) based on qPCR of pmoA genes. Methanotrophic activity and populations in the lake water were highest during fall turnover, and remained high through the winter ice-covered period into spring turnover. They declined during summer stratification, especially in the epilimnion. Three methanotroph genera ( Methylobacter , Methylovulum , and Methyloparacoccus ) cycled seasonally, based on both relative and absolute abundance measurements. Methylobacter and Methylovulum populations peaked in winter/spring, when methane oxidation activity was psychrophilic. Methyloparacoccus populations increased in the water column through summer and fall, when methane oxidation was mesophilic, and also predominated in the underlying tailings sediment. Other, less abundant genera grew primarily during summer, possibly due to distinct CH 4 /O 2 microniches created during thermal stratification. These data are consistent with temporal and spatial niche differentiation based on temperature, CH 4 and O 2 . This pit lake displays methane cycling and methanotroph population dynamics similar to natural boreal lakes. Importance statement: The study examined methanotrophic bacteria in an industrial end pit lake, combining molecular DNA methods (both quantitative and descriptive) with biogeochemical measurements. The lake was sampled over 5 years, in all four seasons, as often as weekly, and included sub-ice samples. The resulting multi-season and multi-year dataset is unique in its size and intensity, and allowed us to document clear and consistent seasonal patterns of growth and decline of three methanotroph genera ( Methylobacter , Methylovulum , and Methyloparacoccus ). Laboratory experiments suggested that one major control of this succession was niche partitioning based on temperature. The study helps to understand microbial dynamics in engineered end-pit lakes, but we propose that the dynamics are typical of boreal stratified lakes, and widely applicable in microbial ecology and limnology. Methane oxidising bacteria are important model organisms in microbial ecology, and have implications for global climate change.

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The co-importance of physical mixing and biogeochemical consumption in controlling water cap oxygen levels in Base Mine Lake

Cited by 15 publications

References 52 publications

Large freshwater phages with the potential to augment aerobic methane oxidation

Large freshwater phages with the potential to augment aerobic methane oxidation

Isotopic and Chemical Assessment of the Dynamics of Methane Sources and Microbial Cycling during Early Development of an Oil Sands Pit Lake

Seasonal Dynamics of Methanotrophic Bacteria in a Boreal Oil Sands End Pit Lake

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