Prokaryotic diversity in stream sediments affected by acid mine drainage
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Prokaryotic diversity in stream sediments affected by acid mine drainage Jorge D. Carlier1 · Sara Ettamimi2 · Cymon J. Cox1 · Khalil Hammani2 · Hassan Ghazal3 · Maria Clara Costa1,4 Received: 25 May 2020 / Accepted: 24 August 2020 © Springer Japan KK, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract The microbial communities in mining impacted areas rely on a variety of mechanisms to survive in such extreme environments. In this work, a meta-taxonomic approach using 16S rRNA gene sequences was used to investigate the prokaryotic diversity of sediment samples from water bodies affected by acid mine drainage at the São Domingos mining area in the south of Portugal. Samples were collected in summer and winter from the most contaminated sites from where the water flows downstream to the freshwater of Chança’s river reservoir. The prokaryotic diversity on water bodies’ sediments allowed us to distinguish the highly contaminated sites (pH ≈ 2) from sites with intermediate levels of contamination (pH ≈ 3–6.5), and from sites without contamination (pH ≈ 7.5). The abundances of acidophiles of genera Acidiphilium, Acidibacter, Acidobacterium and Acidocella in the sediments were correlated with the level of acid mine drainage contamination. The two first genera were among the 30 most abundant prokaryotes in all contaminated samples, including one (SS2w), where the contamination was very diluted, thereby emphasizing the impact that such type of pollution can have in the microbial communities of sediments. In addition, the high abundances of archaeal taxa from class Thermoplasmata and of bacteria from family RCP1-48 in the sediments from the most contaminated site corroborate their importance in such ecosystems and a putative role in the generation of acid mine drainage. Keywords Acid mine drainage · Metal contamination · Microbiome · Sediments
Introduction
Communicated by A. Oren. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-020-01196-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Jorge D. Carlier [email protected] 1
Centre of Marine Sciences (CCMAR), University of the Algarve, Gambelas Campus, 8005‑139 Faro, Portugal
2
Natural Resources and Environment Laboratory, Department of Biology, Polydisciplinary Faculty of Taza, Taza, Morocco
3
Genetics and Physiology Faculty of Sciences of Oujda, University Mohammed Premier, Oujda, Morocco
4
Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of the Algarve, Gambelas Campus, Building 8, 8005‑139 Faro, Portugal
The exploration of minerals has been for many centuries one of the most important human activities in the world. However, this mineral activity can become a source of contamination, causing major environmental problems such as the generation acid mine drainage (AMD). Also known as acid rock drainage, AMD is a strong acidic wastewater with high concentrations of sulphates, metals and metalloids which can contaminate ground and watercourses, damaging the health of aqua
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