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Microbial diversity and community structure in an antimony-rich tailings dump

  • Environmental biotechnology
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Abstract

To assess the impact of antimony (Sb) on microbial community structure, 12 samples were taken from an Sb tailings pile in Guizhou Province, Southwest China. All 12 samples exhibited elevated Sb concentrations, but the mobile and bioaccessible fractions were small in comparison to total Sb concentrations. Besides the geochemical analyses, microbial communities inhabiting the tailing samples were characterized to investigate the interplay between the microorganisms and environmental factors in mine tailings. In all samples, Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria were the most dominant phyla. At the genus level, Thiobacillus, Limnobacter, Nocardioides, Lysobacter, Phormidium, and Kaistobacter demonstrated relatively high abundances. The two most abundant genera, Thiobacillus and Limnobacter, are characterized as sulfur-oxidizing bacteria and thiosulfate-oxidizing bacteria, respectively, while the genus Lysobacter contains arsenic (As)-resistant bacteria. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) indicates that TOC and the sulfate to sulfide ratio strongly shaped the microbial communities, suggesting the influence of the environmental factors in the indigenous microbial communities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang, 500081, China

    Enzong Xiao, Tangfu Xiao, Zengping Ning, Qingxiang Xiao & Weimin Sun

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Enzong Xiao & Qingxiang Xiao

  3. Department of Environmental Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, USA

    Valdis Krumins

  4. Department of Geology, University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA

    Yiran Dong

  5. Innovation Center and Key Laboratory of Waters Safety & Protection in the Pearl River Delta, Ministry of Education, Guangzhou University, 99 Lincheng Road West, Guiyang, Guizhou Province, 550081, People’s Republic of China

    Tangfu Xiao

  6. Department of Microbiology and Biochemistry, Rutgers University, 14 College Farm Road, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, USA

    Weimin Sun

  7. Guangdong Institute of Eco-environment and Soil Sciences, Guangzhou, 510650, China

    Weimin Sun

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  1. Enzong Xiao
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Correspondence to Tangfu Xiao or Weimin Sun.

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This research was funded by the Public Welfare Foundation of the Ministry of Water Resources of China (201501011), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41103080, 41173028), the Opening Fund of the State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry (SKLEG2015907), and Guangdong Academy of Sciences (REN [2015] 20).

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Xiao, E., Krumins, V., Dong, Y. et al. Microbial diversity and community structure in an antimony-rich tailings dump. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 100, 7751–7763 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-016-7598-1

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