Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Soil characteristics and microbial community response in rare earth mining areas in southern Jiangxi Province, China

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Environmental Science and Pollution Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The microbial community and functional flora in rare earth mining areas are correlated, but the characteristics and metabolic pathways of pollutant in such mining areas are still poorly known. The heavy metals, rare earth elements, and microorganisms present after mining of rare earth mine sites were analyzed. After mining, all sampling sites exhibited low pH and low total organic carbon levels, accompanied by high iron and aluminum concentrations. The development of vegetation is closely related to the development of microorganisms. In the complex environment of rare earth mining areas, Proteobacteria exhibit an absolute competitive advantage. During mine environmental recovery, the relative abundances of Acidobacteria and Chloroflexi will increase markedly, and with further restoration the relative abundance of Firmicutes will gradually decrease. Many genera of bacteria related to the N cycle and heavy metal metabolism were detected in the study area, indicating the important metabolic pathways for ammonia nitrogen and heavy metals in rare earth mining areas. Bacterial genera that promote plant nitrogen fixation also occur in the area, further revealing the nitrogen cycle. This research is important for health assessment and recovery of rare earth mines.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

All the data obtained in this study are presented in this paper, and the specific sequencing results and element determination data can be obtained from the author.

References

  • Abed RMM, de Beer D, Stief P (2015) Functional-structural analysis of nitrogen-cycle bacteria in a hypersaline mat from the Omani Desert. Geomicrobiol J 32(2):119–129

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Alonso E, Sherman AM, Wallington TJ, Everson MP, Field FR, Roth R et al (2012) Correction to evaluating rare earth element availability: a case with revolutionary demand from clean technologies. Environ Sci Technol 46(6):3406–3414

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson M J. (2002) A new method for non‐parametric multivariate analysis of variance[J]. Austral Ecology 26(1):32–46.

  • Anderson MJ, Ellingsen KE, McArdle BH (2006) Multivariate dispersion as a measure of beta diversity. Ecology Letters 9(6):683–693

  • Benjamini Y, Hochberg Y (1995) Controlling the false discovery rate: a practical and powerful approach to multiple testing. J R Stat Soc Ser B 57(1):289–300

    Google Scholar 

  • Berg G, Eberl L, Hartmann A (2005) The rhizosphere as a reservoir for opportunistic human pathogenic bacteria. Environ Microbiol 7(11):1673–1685

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bokulich NA, Kaehler BD, Rideout JR, Dillon M, Bolyen E, Knight R et al (2018) Optimizing taxonomic classification of marker-gene amplicon sequences with QIIME 2's q2-feature-classifier plugin. Microbiome. 6(1):90–107

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bray JR, Curtis JT (1957) An ordination of the upland forest communities of southern Wisconsin. Ecol Monogr 27(4):325–349

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caporaso JG, Lauber CL, Walters WA, Berg-Lyons D, Lozupone CA, Turnbaugh PJ et al (2011) Global patterns of 16S rRNA diversity at a depth of millions of sequences per sample. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 108(Suppl 1):4516–4522

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chao A (1984) Nonparametric estimation of the number of classes in a population. Scand J Stat:265–270

  • Chee-Sanford J, Tian D, Sanford R (2019) Consumption of N2O and other N-cycle intermediates by Gemmatimonas aurantiaca strain T-27. Microbiology. 165(12):1345–1354

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chen LX, Li JT, Chen YT, Huang LN, Hua ZS, Hu M et al (2013) Shifts in microbial community composition and function in the acidification of a lead/zinc mine tailings. Environ Microbiol 15(9):2431–2444

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Clarke KR (1993) Non-parametric multivariate analyses of changes in community structure. Austral Ecology 18(1):117-143

  • Crovadore J, Calmin G, Cochard B, Chablais R, Lefort F (2016) Whole-genome sequence of Bradyrhizobium elkanii strain UASWS1015, a highly ammonia-tolerant nitrifying bacterium. Genome Announc 4(2):111–116

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • de Andrade Santos A, da Silveira JAG, de Araujo Guilherme E, Bonifacio A, Rodrigues AC, Figueiredo M (2018) Changes induced by co-inoculation in nitrogen–carbon metabolism in cowpea under salinity stress. Braz J Microbiol 49(4):685–694

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Deng J, Bai X, Zhou Y, Zhu W, Yin Y (2020) Variations of soil microbial communities accompanied by different vegetation restoration in an open-cut iron mining area. Sci Total Environ 704:135243

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Dutta T, Kim KH, Uchimiya M, Kwon EE, Jeon BH, Deep A et al (2016) Global demand for rare earth resources and strategies for green mining. Environ Res 150:182–190

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Feng AJ, Xiao X, Ye CC, Xu XM, Zhu Q, Yuan JP, et al. Isolation and characterization of Burkholderia fungorum Gan-35 with the outstanding ammonia nitrogen-degrading ability from the tailings of rare-earth-element mines in southern Jiangxi, China. AMB Express. 2017a;7(1):140.

  • Feng AJ, Xiao X, Ye CC, Xu XM, Zhu Q, Yuan et al (2017b) Isolation and characterization of Burkholderia fungorum Gan-35 with the outstanding ammonia nitrogen-degrading ability from the tailings of rare-earth-element mines in southern Jiangxi, China. AMB Express 7(140):1–12

    Google Scholar 

  • Forsberg KJ, Reyes A, Wang B, Selleck EM, Sommer MO, Dantas G (2012) The shared antibiotic resistome of soil bacteria and human pathogens. Science. 337(6098):1107–1111

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Friedrich KL, Souza ADR, Fia R, Leal CD, Araújo JCD, Siniscalchi LAB (2020) Nitratation in pilot-scale bioreactors fed with effluent from a submerged biological aerated filter used in the treatment of dog wastewater. Environ Technol:1–11

  • Good IJ (1953) The population frequencies of species and the estimation of population parameters. Biometrika. 40(3-4):237–264

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hao Y, Jiang XG, Tian Q, Chen AY, Ma BL (2012) Isolation and identification of nitrobacteria adapted to low temperature. Adv Mater Res 518-523:406–410

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • He G, Wang X, Liu X, Xiao X, Huang S, Wu J (2019) Nutrients availability shapes fungal community composition and diversity in the rare earth mine tailings of Southern Jiangxi, China. Russ J Ecol 49(6):524–533

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hengkai L, Feng X, Qin L (2020) Remote sensing monitoring of land damage and restoration in rare earth mining areas in 6 counties in southern Jiangxi based on multisource sequential images. J Environ Manag 267:110653

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jaccard P (1908) Nouvelles recherches sur la distribution florale. Bulletin de la Societe Vaudoise des Sciences Naturelles 44:223–270

    Google Scholar 

  • Jin SL, Huang YZ, Wang F, Xu F, Wang XL, Gao Z et al (2015) Rare earth elements content in farmland soils and crops of the surrounding copper mining and smelting plant in Jiangxi province and evaluation of its ecological risk. Huan Jing Ke Xue 36(3):1060–1068

    Google Scholar 

  • Kim SJ, Ahn JH, Weon HY, Hong SB, Seok SJ, Kim JS et al (2015) Chujaibacter soli gen. nov., sp. nov., isolated from soil. J Microbiol 53(9):592–597

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Li P, Yang Z, Tang B, Zhang Q, Chen Z, Zhang J et al (2020) Identification of xanthones from the Mangosteen pericarp that inhibit the growth of Ralstonia solanacearum. ACS Omega 5(1):334–343

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Liu J, Hua ZS, Chen LX, Kuang JL, Li SJ, Shu WS et al (2014a) Correlating microbial diversity patterns with geochemistry in an extreme and heterogeneous environment of mine tailings. Appl Environ Microbiol 80(12):3677–3686

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Liu S, Liu X, Huang Y, Luo X (2014b) Environmental problems and the ecological restoration of polluted land in ion-absorbed rare earth mine: a conceptual model. Legislation Technol Practice Mine Land Reclamation 1:451

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu W-S, Guo M-N, Liu C, Yuan M, Chen X-T, Huot H et al (2019) Water, sediment and agricultural soil contamination from an ion-adsorption rare earth mining area. Chemosphere. 216:75–83

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lozupone C, Knight R (2005) UniFrac: a new phylogenetic method for comparing microbial communities. Appl Environ Microbiol 71(12):8228–8235

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lozupone CA, Hamady M, Kelley ST, Knight R (2007) Quantitative and qualitative β diversity measures lead to different insights into factors that structure microbial communities. Appl Environ Microbiol 73(5):1576–1585

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Martin M (2011) Cutadapt removes adapter sequences from high-throughput sequencing reads. EMBnet. 17(1):10–12

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Orozco-Aceves M, Tibbett M, Standish RJ (2017) Correlation between soil development and native plant growth in forest restoration after surface mining. Ecol Eng 106:209–218

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parker CW, Auler AS, Barton MD, Sasowsky ID, Senko JM, Barton HA (2017) Fe(III) reducing microorganisms from iron ore caves demonstrate fermentative Fe(III) reduction and promote cave formation. Geomicrobiol J 36(4):564–571

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramette A (2007) Multivariate analyses in microbial ecology. FEMS Microbiol Ecol 62(2):142–160

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Saveli CC, Levi M, Koeppe J (2010) Ochrobactrum anthropi septic arthritis: case report and implications in orthopedic infections. Infect Dis Rep 2(1):e2

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sen D, Appunu CS, R. K (2008) Regulation of urease in Bradyrhizobium colonizing green gram (Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek). Indian J Exp Biol 46(12):846

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Shannon CE (1948) A mathematical theory of communication. Bell Syst Tech J 27(3):379–423

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shi P, Zhang Y, Hu Z, Ma K, Wang H, Chai T (2017) The response of soil bacterial communities to mining subsidence in the west China aeolian sand area. Appl Soil Ecol 121:1–10

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shi Q, Jin J, Liu Y, Zhang Y, Lian T (2020) High aluminum drives different rhizobacterial communities between aluminum-tolerant and aluminum-sensitive wild soybean. Front Microbiol 11:01996

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shrestha P, Gautam R, Ashwath N (2019) Effects of agronomic treatments on functional diversity of soil microbial community and microbial activity in a revegetated coal mine spoil. Geoderma. 338:40–47

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • SIMPSON EH (1949) Measurement of diversity. Nature. 163(4148):688–688

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sun X, Zhou Y, Tan Y, Wu Z, Lu P, Zhang G et al (2018) Restoration with pioneer plants changes soil properties and remodels the diversity and structure of bacterial communities in rhizosphere and bulk soil of copper mine tailings in Jiangxi Province, China. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int 25(22):22106–22119

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Tang J, Zhang J, Ren L, Zhou Y, Gao J, Luo L et al (2019) Diagnosis of soil contamination using microbiological indices: a review on heavy metal pollution. J Environ Manag 242:121–130

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Terzano R, Cuccovillo G, Pascazio S, Crecchio C, Lettino A, Fiore S et al (2016) Degradation of citrate promotes copper co-precipitation within aluminium-(hydr)oxides in calcareous soils. Biol Fertil Soils 53(1):115–128

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Vieira CC, Botelho NF, Garnier J (2019) Geochemical and mineralogical characteristics of REEY occurrences in the Mocambo Granitic Massif tin-bearing A-type granite, central Brazil, and its potential for ion-adsorption-type REEY mineralization. Ore Geol Rev 105:467–486

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Warton DI, Wright ST, Wang Y (2012) Distance-based multivariate analyses confound location and dispersion effects. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 3(1):89–101

  • Wen XJ, Duan CQ, Zhang DC (2012) Effect of simulated acid rain and rare earth contamination on soil enzyme activities in rare earth Ming Area, South Jiangxi, China. Adv Mater Res 610-613:2954–2958

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wissler C (1905) The Spearman correlation formula. Science. 22(558):309–311

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Yamamoto K, Hackley KC, Kelly WR, Panno SV, Sekiguchi Y, Sanford RA et al (2019) Diversity and geochemical community assembly processes of the living rare biosphere in a sand-and-gravel aquifer ecosystem in the Midwestern United States. Sci Rep 9(1):1–11

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yang X, Li S, Pan L, Wang Q, Li HGPH, MEDICINE (2016) Assessment of successful smoking cessation by psychological factors using the Bayesian network approach. Psychol Med 21(5):652–661

    Google Scholar 

  • Youfa L, Yonggui W, Hu, Wang et al (2018) Bacterial community structure and diversity responses to the direct revegetation of an artisanal zinc smelting slag after 5 years. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25(15):14773–14788

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Yunzhang Rao RG, Ruikai G, Xueyan Z (2017) Measures to restore metallurgical mine wasteland using ecological restoration technologies: a case study at Longnan Rare Earth Mine. Int Conference Energy Eng Environ Protection 52:012080

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang H (2013) CLM. Early development of soil microbial communities on rehabilitated quarries. Restor Ecol 21(4):490–497

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang Y, Xiong Z, Yang L, Ren Z, Shao P, Shi H et al (2019) Successful isolation of a tolerant co-flocculating microalgae towards highly efficient nitrogen removal in harsh rare earth element tailings (REEs) wastewater. Water Res 166:115076

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang H, Chen W, Zhao B, Phillips LA, Zhou Y, Lapen DR et al (2020) Sandy soils amended with bentonite induced changes in soil microbiota and fungistasis in maize fields. Appl Soil Ecol 146:103378

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhao Z, Bai Z, Zhang Z, Guo D, Li J, Xu Z et al (2012) Population structure and spatial distributions patterns of 17 years old plantation in a reclaimed spoil of Pingshuo opencast mine, China. Ecol Eng 44(none):0–151

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhou W, Yang K, Bai Z, Cheng H, Liu F (2017) The development of topsoil properties under different reclaimed land uses in the Pingshuo opencast coalmine of Loess Plateau of China. Ecol Eng 100:237–245

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhu WX, S, Wu D, Shao P, Yang W, Zhang H, Feng J (1997) Investigation on arteriosclerosis among population in a rare earth area in south China. Biol Trace Elem Res 59(1-3):93–98

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • ДОБРОВОЛЬСКАЯ ТГ, ГОЛОВЧЕНКО АВ, ЛЫСАК ЛВ, ЮРЧЕНКО ЕН. (2020) Таксономическая структура бактериальных сообществ ризосферной почвы под растениями верховых болот. Вестник Московского университета. Серия 17: Почвоведение. (2):45-52.

Download references

Acknowledgements

In this study, the sampling process was assisted by Beijing Mining and Metallurgy Technology Group Co., Ltd. The sampling was guided by Professor Huaming Guo. We thank Lucy Muir, PhD, from Liwen Bianji, Edanz Editing China (www.liwenbianji.cn/ac), for editing the English text of a draft of this manuscript. This study was supported by Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.

Funding

This article was sponsored by the following funds:

1. National Key Research and Development program (2019YFC1804804)

2. National Natural Science Foundation (41877175)

3. Graduate Innovation Fund of Jilin University (101832020CX251)

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of New Energy and Environment, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, China

    Zhentian Liang, Wenjing Zhang, Yuesuo Yang, Jincai Ma, Shuxin Li & Zong Wen

  2. Key Laboratory of Groundwater Resources and Environment, Ministry of Education, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, China

    Zhentian Liang, Wenjing Zhang, Yuesuo Yang, Jincai Ma, Shuxin Li & Zong Wen

Authors
  1. Zhentian Liang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Wenjing Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Yuesuo Yang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Jincai Ma
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Shuxin Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Zong Wen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

The research concept, research methods, and funding were acquired by Professors Wenjing Zhang and Yuesuo Yang .The modification of the thesis was helped by Professor Yuesuo Yang and Professor Jincai Ma. The data analysis of this article was helped by Zong Wen and Shuxin Li. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Zhentian Liang, and all the authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wenjing Zhang.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Responsible Editor: Diane Purchase

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary Information

ESM 1

(DOCX 251 kb)

ESM 2

(XLSX 16 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Liang, Z., Zhang, W., Yang, Y. et al. Soil characteristics and microbial community response in rare earth mining areas in southern Jiangxi Province, China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 56418–56431 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-14337-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-14337-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation