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Pristine but metal-rich Río Sucio (Dirty River) is dominated by Gallionella and other iron-sulfur oxidizing microbes

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Abstract

Whether the extreme conditions of acidity and heavy metal pollution of streams and rivers originating in pyritic formations are caused primarily by mining activities or by natural activities of metal-oxidizing microbes living within the geological formations is a subject of considerable controversy. Most microbiological studies of such waters have so far focused on acid mine drainage sites, which are heavily human-impacted environments, so it has been problematic to eliminate the human factor in the question of the origin of the key metal compounds. We have studied the physico-chemistry and microbiology of the Río Sucio in the Braulio Carrillo National Park of Costa Rica, 22 km from its volcanic rock origin. Neither the remote origin, nor the length of the river to the sampling site, have experienced human activity and are thus pristine. The river water had a characteristic brownish-yellow color due to high iron-dominated minerals, was slightly acidic, and rich in chemolithoautotrophic iron- and sulfur-oxidizing bacteria, dominated by Gallionella spp. Río Sucio is thus a natural acid-rock drainage system whose metal-containing components are derived primarily from microbial activities.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Ricardo Amils from the Astrobiology Centre (CSIC-INTA) for critical comments and helpful suggestions on this manuscript, and Raul Mora and Carlos Ramírez of the Costa Rican National Seismological Network (RSN) for inspiring conversations. We also thank to Rolando Mora from Escuela Centroamericana de Geología (Universidad de Costa Rica) by providing information about the origin of Río Sucio and Solange Voysest for help in the design of some figures.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Microbiology, Technical University of Braunschweig, 38106, Brunswick, Germany

    Alejandro Arce-Rodríguez & Kenneth N. Timmis

  2. Microbial Interactions and Processes Research Group, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, 38124, Brunswick, Germany

    Alejandro Arce-Rodríguez & Dietmar H. Pieper

  3. Department of Molecular Evolution, Centro de Astrobiología (INTA-CSIC), Carretera de Ajalvir Km 4, Torrejón de Ardoz, 28850, Madrid, Spain

    Fernando Puente-Sánchez

  4. Centro Nacional de Innovaciones Biotecnológicas (CENIBiot), CeNAT-CONARE, San José, 1174-1200, Costa Rica

    Roberto Avendaño & Max Chavarría

  5. Escuela de Química & Centro de Investigaciones en Productos Naturales (CIPRONA), Universidad de Costa Rica, Sede Central, San Pedro de Montes de Oca, San José, 11501-2060, Costa Rica

    Eduardo Libby, Leonardo Rojas & Max Chavarría

  6. Centro de Investigaciones en Productos Naturales (CIPRONA), Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, 11501-2060, Costa Rica

    Juan Carlos Cambronero & Max Chavarría

  7. Centro de Investigación en Biología Celular y Molecular (CIBCM), Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, 11501-2060, Costa Rica

    Juan Carlos Cambronero

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  1. Alejandro Arce-Rodríguez
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  2. Fernando Puente-Sánchez
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  4. Eduardo Libby
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  8. Kenneth N. Timmis
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  9. Max Chavarría
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Correspondence to Max Chavarría.

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Funding

This work was supported by resources of the Vice-rectory of Research of Universidad de Costa Rica (809-B4-282) and by the ERC grant IPBSL (ERC250350-IPBSL) to Ricardo Amils and Kenneth N. Timmis. Computational resources were provided by the Data Intensive Academic Grid, which is supported by the USA National Science Foundation (0959894). F.P.S. was supported by a JAE-pre fellowship from the Spanish Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) and the European Union FP7 programme Grant Agreement (607346).

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Arce-Rodríguez, A., Puente-Sánchez, F., Avendaño, R. et al. Pristine but metal-rich Río Sucio (Dirty River) is dominated by Gallionella and other iron-sulfur oxidizing microbes. Extremophiles 21, 235–243 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-016-0898-7

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