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Addition of carbon sources and nutrient salts can inhibit gangue acidification by changing microbial community structure

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Abstract

Acidic pollution from gangue oxidation has become a primary environmental problem in coal mining areas in China. The use of microorganisms to remediate acidic pollution in coal gangue piles has been indicated to be effective, but environmental differences and carbon sources in different mining areas have become important factors restricting microbial activity. Instead of the addition of new functional bacteria to gangue piles, carbon sources and nutrient salts were added to recently discharged gangue to enhance the activity of beneficial bacteria in the indigenous microbial community. The changes in pH and electrical conductivity (EC) of the gangue leachate as well as the composition and abundance of the functional microbial community on the surface of the gangue were analyzed by leaching simulation experiments and 16S rRNA sequencing. The results showed that the addition of a carbon source maintained the pH of the gangue leachate at 6.31~6.65 in 14 d, which was significantly higher than that of the control group, but the pH of the leachate decreased significantly after the addition of the carbon source was stopped. The most effective treatment is adding a low concentration of nutrient salt (20% concentration) and sodium lactate (0.02 g/L) to the gangue first, and then adding sodium lactate (0.1 mg/L) every 7 days. The addition of carbon sources and nutrient salts changed the microbial community composition on the surface of the gangue, and the species diversity index decreased. The dominant genera in the experimental group were Listeria, Arthrobacter, and Enterococcus. The functional gene types in the experimental and control groups were almost the same, but their relative abundance changed. The abundance of functional genes related to the sulfur cycle increased substantially in the experimental group, and the abundance of genes involved in the nitrogen and carbon cycles also increased, albeit to different degrees.

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This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program (grant number 2019YFC1805003).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, National Engineering Laboratory for Lake Pollution Control and Ecological Restoration, State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory for Lake Pollution Control, Beijing, 100012, China

    Qi Zhu & Chun Ye

  2. Institute of Land Reclamation and Ecological Restoration, China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), Beijing, 100083, China

    Mengying Ruan

  3. School of Environment Science and Spatial Informatics, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 211116, Jiangsu, China

    Zhenqi Hu

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  1. Qi Zhu
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  2. Mengying Ruan
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  4. Chun Ye
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Conceptualization, ZH and QZ; methodology, MR; software, MR; validation, QZ and CY; data curation, QZ; writing—original draft preparation, QZ; writing—review and editing, ZH and CY; supervision, ZH. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Zhu, Q., Ruan, M., Hu, Z. et al. Addition of carbon sources and nutrient salts can inhibit gangue acidification by changing microbial community structure. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 90046–90057 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-21726-5

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