Microbial diversity and community structure dynamics in acid mine drainage: Acidic fire with dissolved heavy metals

Wasim Sajjad; Nikhat Ilahi; Shichang Kang; Ali Bahadur; Abhishek Banerjee; Sahib Zada; Barkat Ali; Muhammad Rafiq; Guodong Zheng

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.168635

Microbial diversity and community structure dynamics in acid mine drainage: Acidic fire with dissolved heavy metals

Sci Total Environ. 2024 Jan 20:909:168635. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.168635. Epub 2023 Nov 18.

Authors

Wasim Sajjad¹, Nikhat Ilahi², Shichang Kang¹, Ali Bahadur¹, Abhishek Banerjee¹, Sahib Zada³, Barkat Ali¹, Muhammad Rafiq⁴, Guodong Zheng⁵

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Science, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-Ecosystems, College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China.
³ Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China.
⁴ Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Life Sciences and Informatics, Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences, Quetta, Pakistan. Electronic address: mr14311@my.bristol.ac.uk.
⁵ School of Environmental Studies, China University Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China. Electronic address: zhengguodong@cug.edu.cn.

PMID: 37981161
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.168635

Abstract

Acid mine drainage (AMD) is one of the leading causes of environmental pollution and is linked to public health and ecological consequences. Microbes-mineral interaction generates AMD, but microorganisms can also remedy AMD pollution. Exploring the microbial response to AMD effluents may reveal survival strategies in extreme ecosystems. Three distinct sites across a mine (inside the mine, the entrance of the mine, and outside) were selected to study their heavy metal concentrations due to significant variations in pH and physicochemical characteristics, and high-throughput sequencing was carried out to investigate the microbial diversity. The metal and ion concentrations followed the order SO₄^2-, Fe, Cu, Zn, Mg, Pb, Co, Cr, and Ni from highest to lowest, respectively. Maximum sequences were allocated to Proteobacteria and Firmicutes. Among archaea, the abundance of Thaumarchaeota and Euryarchaeota was higher outside of mine. Most of the genera (23.12 %) were unclassified and unknown. The average OTUs (operational taxonomic units) were significantly higher outside the mine; however, diversity indices were not significantly different across the mine sites. Hierarchical clustering of selective genera and nMDS ordination of OTUs displayed greater segregation resolution inside and outside of mine, whereas the entrance samples clustered with greater similarity. Heterogeneous selection might be the main driver of community composition outside the mine, whereas stochastic processes became prominent inside the mine. However, the ANOSIM test shows a relatively even distribution of community composition within and between the groups. Microbial phyla showed both positive and negative correlations with physicochemical factors. A greater number of biomarkers were reported outside of the mine. Predictive functional investigation revealed the existence of putative degradative, metabolic, and biosynthetic pathways. This study presents a rare dataset in our understanding of microbial diversity and distribution as shaped by the ecological gradient and potential novelty in phylogenetic/taxonomic diversity in AMD, with potential biotechnological applications.

Keywords: Acid mine drainage (AMD); Dissolved heavy metals; Extremely acidic environment; Firmicutes; Microbial community; Proteobacteria.

MeSH terms

Archaea
Ecosystem*
Environmental Pollution
Metals, Heavy* / analysis
Phylogeny

Substances

Metals, Heavy