Natural attenuation of lead by microbial manganese oxides in a karst aquifer
dc.contributor.author | Newsome, L | |
dc.contributor.author | Bacon, CGD | |
dc.contributor.author | Song, H | |
dc.contributor.author | Luo, Y | |
dc.contributor.author | Sherman, DM | |
dc.contributor.author | LLoyd, JR | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2020-09-08T14:32:29Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2020-09-21 | |
dc.description.abstract | Lead is a toxic environmental contaminant associated with current and historic mine sites. Here we studied the natural attenuation of Pb in a limestone cave system that receives drainage from the ancient Priddy Mineries, UK. Extensive deposits of manganese oxides were observed to be forming on the cave walls and as coatings in the stream beds. Analysis of these deposits identified them as birnessite (δ-MnO2), with some extremely high concentrations of sorbed Pb (up to 56 wt. %) also present. We hypothesised that these cave crusts were actively being formed by microbial Mn(II)-oxidation, and to investigate this the microbial communities were characterised by DNA sequencing, enrichment and isolation experiments. The birnessite deposits contained abundant and diverse prokaryotes and fungi, with ~5 % of prokaryotes and ~10 % of fungi closely related to known heterotrophic Mn(II)- oxidisers. A substantial proportion (up to 17 %) of prokaryote sequences were assigned to groups known as autotrophic ammonia and nitrite oxidisers, suggesting that nitrogen cycling may play an important role in contributing energy and carbon to the cave crust microbial communities and consequently the formation of Mn(IV)-oxides and Pb attenuation. Enrichment and isolation experiments showed that the birnessite deposits contained Mn(II)- oxidising microorganisms, and two isolates (Streptomyces sp. and Phyllobacterium sp.) could oxidise Mn(II) in the presence of 0.1 mM Pb. Supplying the enrichment cultures with acetate as a source of energy and carbon stimulated Mn(II)-oxidation, but excess organics in the form of glucose generated aqueous Mn(II), likely via microbial Mn(IV)-reduction. In this karst cave, microbial Mn(II)-oxidation contributes to the active sequestration and natural attenuation of Pb from contaminated waters, and therefore may be considered a natural analogue for the design of wastewater remediation systems and for understanding the geochemical controls on karst groundwater quality, a resource relied upon by billions of people across the globe. | en_GB |
dc.description.sponsorship | Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland | en_GB |
dc.description.sponsorship | Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) | en_GB |
dc.description.sponsorship | Golder Associates (UK) Ltd | en_GB |
dc.identifier.citation | Vol. 754, article 142312 | en_GB |
dc.identifier.doi | 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.142312 | |
dc.identifier.grantnumber | NE/M011518/1 | en_GB |
dc.identifier.grantnumber | GELYSN1505 | en_GB |
dc.identifier.grantnumber | GELYSN1525 | en_GB |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10871/122773 | |
dc.language.iso | en | en_GB |
dc.publisher | Elsevier | en_GB |
dc.relation.url | http://dx.doi.org/10.17632/9cfmwj7ghp.1 | en_GB |
dc.rights | © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). | en_GB |
dc.subject | Bioremediation | en_GB |
dc.subject | Natural Analogue | en_GB |
dc.subject | Birnessite | en_GB |
dc.subject | Fungi | en_GB |
dc.subject | Bacteria | en_GB |
dc.subject | Microbial Community | en_GB |
dc.title | Natural attenuation of lead by microbial manganese oxides in a karst aquifer | en_GB |
dc.type | Article | en_GB |
dc.date.available | 2020-09-08T14:32:29Z | |
dc.identifier.issn | 0048-9697 | |
dc.description | This is the final version. Available on open access from Elsevier via the DOI in this record | en_GB |
dc.description | Data availability: Nucleotide sequence data are available in the GenBank database under the BioProject accession number PRJNA638888, and the other data are available via Mendeley Data (http://dx.doi.org/10.17632/9cfmwj7ghp.1). | en_GB |
dc.identifier.journal | Science of the Total Environment | en_GB |
dc.rights.uri | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ | en_GB |
dcterms.dateAccepted | 2020-09-07 | |
rioxxterms.version | VoR | en_GB |
rioxxterms.licenseref.startdate | 2020-09-07 | |
rioxxterms.type | Journal Article/Review | en_GB |
refterms.dateFCD | 2020-09-08T13:13:57Z | |
refterms.versionFCD | AM | |
refterms.dateFOA | 2023-08-31T14:53:52Z | |
refterms.panel | B | en_GB |
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's licence is described as © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).