Efficient Low-pH Iron Removal by a Microbial Iron Oxide Mound Ecosystem at Scalp Level Run.

Acid mine drainage (AMD) is a major environmental problem affecting tens of thousands of kilometers of waterways worldwide. Passive bioremediation of AMD relies on microbial communities to oxidize and remove iron from the system; however, iron oxidation rates in AMD environments are highly variable among sites. At Scalp Level Run (Cambria County, PA), first-order iron oxidation rates are 10 times greater than at other coal-associated iron mounds in the Appalachians. We examined the bacterial community at Scalp Level Run to determine whether a unique community is responsible for the rapid iron oxidation rate. Despite strong geochemical gradients, including a >10-fold change in the concentration of ferrous iron from 57.3 mg/liter at the emergence to 2.5 mg/liter at the base of the coal tailings pile, the bacterial community composition was nearly constant with distance from the spring outflow. Scalp Level Run contains many of the same taxa present in other AMD sites, but the community is dominated by two strains of Ferrovum myxofaciens, a species that is associated with high rates of Fe(II) oxidation in laboratory studies.IMPORTANCE Acid mine drainage pollutes more than 19,300 km of rivers and streams and 72,000 ha of lakes worldwide. Remediation is frequently ineffective and costly, upwards of $100 billion globally and nearly $5 billion in Pennsylvania alone. Microbial Fe(II) oxidation is more efficient than abiotic Fe(II) oxidation at low pH (P. C. Singer and W. Stumm, Science 167:1121-1123, 1970, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.167.3921.1121). Therefore, AMD bioremediation could harness microbial Fe(II) oxidation to fuel more-cost-effective treatments. Advances will require a deeper understanding of the ecology of Fe(II)-oxidizing microbial communities and the factors that control their distribution and rates of Fe(II) oxidation. We investigated bacterial communities that inhabit an AMD site with rapid Fe(II) oxidation and found that they were dominated by two operational taxonomic units (OTUs) of Ferrovum myxofaciens, a taxon associated with high laboratory rates of iron oxidation. This research represents a step forward in identifying taxa that can be used to enhance cost-effective AMD bioremediation.

Characterizing nutrient distributions and fluxes in a eutrophic reservoir, Midwestern United States.

Harmful algal blooms are increasingly common in aquatic ecosystems and have been linked to runoff from agricultural land. This study investigated the internal nutrient (i.e., phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N)) dynamics of a eutrophic reservoir in the Midwestern United States to constrain the potential for sedimentary nutrients to stimulate harmful algal blooms. The spatial distribution of nutrients in the water column (soluble reactive P (SRP), nitrate/nitrite-N (NOx-N), and ammonium-N (NH4+-N)) and sediments (total P, total carbon (C), total N, and organic matter (OM)) were quantified and mapped. Water column nutrients varied spatially and temporally, with generally higher concentrations near the dam wall during normal lake levels. The upper portion of the lake, near the inlet, was sampled during a flood event and had overall higher nutrient concentrations and lower chlorophyll levels compared to normal lake level samples. Mean sedimentary total P (936mg/kg) was ~30% higher in the reservoir than the surrounding upland soils, with the highest concentrations near the dam wall (1661mg/kg) and a significant positive correlation found between sedimentary total P, total C, and OM. Additionally, 15 intact sediment cores were manipulated ex situ to examine mechanisms of nutrient flux across the sediment-water interface (SWI) that may trigger algal blooms. Core treatment conditions included advection (i.e., simulating potential nutrient fluxes during wind events through sediment resuspension) and diffusion. Core experiments indicated both advective and diffusive conditions at the SWI may trigger the flux of nutrients important for algal growth from lake sediments, with diffusion contributing both N and P to the water column, while intense advection increased water column N, but decreased P. Release of P to the water column may be more diffusion-driven than advection-driven, whereas N release to the water column appears to be both diffusion- and advection-driven.