Microbial Diversity and Its Relationship to Physicochemical Characteristics of the Water in Two Extreme Acidic Pit Lakes from the Iberian Pyrite Belt (SW Spain)

Por favor, use este identificador para citar o enlazar este ítem: http://hdl.handle.net/10045/63016
Información del item - Informació de l'item - Item information
Título: Microbial Diversity and Its Relationship to Physicochemical Characteristics of the Water in Two Extreme Acidic Pit Lakes from the Iberian Pyrite Belt (SW Spain)
Autor/es: Santofimia, Esther | González-Toril, Elena | López-Pamo, Enrique | Gomariz, María | Amils, Ricardo | Aguilera, Ángeles
Grupo/s de investigación o GITE: Ecología Microbiana Molecular
Centro, Departamento o Servicio: Universidad de Alicante. Departamento de Fisiología, Genética y Microbiología
Palabras clave: Microbial diversity | Physicochemical characteristics | Water | Extreme acidic pit lakes | Iberian Pyrite Belt
Área/s de conocimiento: Biología Celular
Fecha de publicación: 26-jun-2013
Editor: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Cita bibliográfica: Santofimia E, González-Toril E, López-Pamo E, Gomariz M, Amils R, Aguilera Á (2013) Microbial Diversity and Its Relationship to Physicochemical Characteristics of the Water in Two Extreme Acidic Pit Lakes from the Iberian Pyrite Belt (SW Spain). PLoS ONE 8(6): e66746. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0066746
Resumen: The Iberian Pyrite Belt (IPB) hosts one of the world’s largest accumulations of acidic mine wastes and pit lakes. The mineralogical and textural characteristics of the IPB ores have favored the oxidation and dissolution of metallic sulfides, mainly pyrite, and the subsequent formation of acidic mining drainages. This work reports the physical properties, hydrogeochemical characteristics, and microbial diversity of two pit lakes located in the IPB. Both pit lakes are acidic and showed high concentrations of sulfate and dissolved metals. Concentrations of sulfate and heavy metals were higher in the Nuestra Señora del Carmen lake (NSC) by one order of magnitude than in the Concepción (CN) lake. The hydrochemical characteristics of NSC were typical of acid mine waters and can be compared with other acidic environments. When compared to other IPB acidic pit lakes, the superficial water of CN is more diluted than that of any of the others due, probably, to the strong influence of runoff water. Both pit lakes showed chemical and thermal stratification with well defined chemoclines. One particular characteristic of NSC is that it has developed a chemocline very close to the surface (2 m depth). Microbial community composition of the water column was analyzed by 16S and 18S rRNA gene cloning and sequencing. The microorganisms detected in NSC were characteristic of acid mine drainage (AMD), including iron oxidizing bacteria (Leptospirillum, Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans) and facultative iron reducing bacteria and archaea (Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans, Acidiphilium, Actinobacteria, Acidimicrobiales, Ferroplasma) detected in the bottom layer. Diversity in CN was higher than in NSC. Microorganisms known from AMD systems (Acidiphilium, Acidobacteria and Ferrovum) and microorganisms never reported from AMD systems were identified. Taking into consideration the hydrochemical characteristics of these pit lakes and the spatial distribution of the identified microorganisms, a model explaining their geomicrobiology is advanced.
Patrocinador/es: This work has been supported by grants from the MINECO-Spain (www.mineco.gob.es) (CGL2011-22540 and CGL2009-11059), IGME 478 Grant (www.igme.es) and an ERC project (http://erc.europa.eu) (250-350-IPBSL).
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10045/63016
ISSN: 1932-6203
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0066746
Idioma: eng
Tipo: info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Derechos: © 2013 Santofimia et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Revisión científica: si
Versión del editor: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0066746
Aparece en las colecciones:INV - EMM - Artículos de Revistas

Archivos en este ítem:
Archivos en este ítem:
Archivo Descripción TamañoFormato 
Thumbnail2013_Santofimia_etal_PLoS-ONE.pdf1,53 MBAdobe PDFAbrir Vista previa


Este ítem está licenciado bajo Licencia Creative Commons Creative Commons