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Dynamic characteristics of soil heavy metals and microbial communities under moss cover at different successional stages in a manganese mining area

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Abstract

The mining and smelting of manganese ores and the accumulation of slag not only pollute the environment and increase the threat to biodiversity, but also adversely affect the health of human and other organisms. Therefore, it’s important to study the restoration of manganese mining area. Since mosses play an irreplaceable role in the ecological restoration of mine sites, this study is carried out in a slag heap area that has been in continuous operation for about 50 years, and spatial variation is used instead of temporal variation to study the diversity of moss plants, the characteristics of soil heavy metal changes under moss cover, and the characteristics of bacterial communities in manganese mine sites at different time scales. A total of 20 moss taxa from 8 genera and 5 families are recorded, the dominant families are Bryaceae (50%) and Pottiaceae (25%), with the development of succession, the alpha-diversity index of mosses increases with the development of succession. The study area has a relatively high level of heavy metal contamination, the heavy metals Mn, V, Cu and Ni are significantly affected by succession in the Manganese mining area, and the soil heavy metal content generally shows a decreasing trend with the development of succession. Actinobacteriota, Proteobacteria, Chloroflexi Acidobacteriota and Gemmatimonadota are the dominant soil bacterial phyla in manganese mining areas (relative abundance > 10%), the composition of soil bacteria at different successional stages at the phylum level was the same, but the abundance of each bacterial community differed. The soil bacterial community in the manganese mining area is significantly affected by soil heavy metals.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China [NSFC. No. 31960044] and the Department of Science and Technology Foundation of Guizhou Province, China [DSTFGC, (2019) 0520079]. We thank Zhu Di, Ma Yijing and Wu Dongyi for their help in field work.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [NSFC. No. 31960044] and the Department of Science and Technology Foundation of Guizhou Province, China [DSTFGC, (2019) 0520079].

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  1. Key Laboratory for Information System of Mountainous Area and Protection of Ecological Environment of Guizhou Province, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, 550001, China

    Chen Pengpeng & Zhang Zhaohui

  2. School of Life Sciences, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, 550001, China

    Wang Zhihui

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  1. Chen Pengpeng
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All authors contributed to the research conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis, and manuscript writing were conducted by PC.

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Correspondence to Zhang Zhaohui.

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Pengpeng, C., Zhihui, W. & Zhaohui, Z. Dynamic characteristics of soil heavy metals and microbial communities under moss cover at different successional stages in a manganese mining area. Environ Geochem Health 45, 7711–7726 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-023-01681-x

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