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Diversity of Cyanobacteria and Algae During Primary Succession in Iron Ore Tailing Dumps

Microbial Ecology volume 83, pages 408–423 (2022)Cite this article

Abstract

The extraction of commercial minerals is often accompanied by the formation of large areas of quarry and dump technogenic ecosystems. This stimulates the search for measures to reduce their negative impact on the environment, as well as a detailed study of all the constituent elements of ecosystems that spontaneously or after reclamation form on them. Primary stages of syngenesis on the tailing dumps of iron ore mines in Kryvorizhzhia took place involving cyanobacteria and eukaryotic algae. The dynamics of the community structures of algae and cyanobacteria depends on the mineralogical composition of tailings, salinity conditions, pH, and content of particles of physical clay and humus. The assessment of the features of the dynamics of algae communities was carried out based on the ordination procedure because of the method of non-metric multidimensional scaling. The considered environmental variables were statistically significant predictors of community structure and could explain 47–90% of the variation in measurements. Diagnostic signs of the species composition of communities of algae and cyanobacteria tailing dumps were established by physical and chemical parameters. An increase in the content of physical clay particles in the substrate and a pH shift towards the alkaline side increased the species richness of cyanobacteria, while an increase in the humus content increased the total species diversity. Based on the specificity of the type of growth and the species composition of algae communities, when describing the primary successions, it is proposed to allocate the following stages of development of algae and cyanobacteria communities: dispersal aerophyton, stratose epilitophyton, algal crust, mixed moss and algal crust, and edaphone.

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Data Availability

Supplementary Table 1 Species of algae and cyanobacteria identified from the different soil samples collected from the 17 sample areas.

Code Availability

Not applicable.

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Funding

Work with cyanobacteria for morphological analysis and curation under Yevhen Maltsev was supported by Russian Foundation for Basic Research according to the project № 19-04-00326 and by framework of the state assignment (theme AAAA–A19–119041190086–6) for finishing the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. К.A. Timiryazev Institute of Plant Physiology RAS, IPP RAS, Moscow, 127276, Russia

    Yevhen Maltsev & Svetlana Maltseva

  2. Bohdan Khmelnitsky Melitopol State Pedagogical University, Melitopol, 72312, Ukraine

    Irina Maltseva

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  1. Yevhen Maltsev
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  2. Svetlana Maltseva
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All authors contributed substantially to the conception and design or data acquisition and analysis, and drafting or critical revision of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yevhen Maltsev.

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Maltsev, Y., Maltseva, S. & Maltseva, I. Diversity of Cyanobacteria and Algae During Primary Succession in Iron Ore Tailing Dumps. Microb Ecol 83, 408–423 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-021-01759-y

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Keywords

  • Cyanobacteria
  • Algae
  • Succession
  • Mining and metallurgical production
  • Land reclaiming