Abstract:
Agricultural practices may cause contamination of soil and ground water with a combination of organic compounds (pesticides and fuel) and nitrogen fertilizers. In coupled microcosm studies that monitored the mineralization of naphthalene and the nitrification of ammonia, it was observed that the solvent (dichloromethane) used to apply naphthalene to the soil inhibited nitrification, although there was no effect on naphthalene mineralization. Further studies were performed with a series of application solvents: methanol, acetonitrile, trichloromethane, and dichloromethane. Soil and solvent were allowed to equilibrate with ambient air for various times before capping and incubation of microcosm. Results indicated that dichloromethane equilibrated for 5 mins inhibited nitrification for at least 3 weeks relative to the control (water). Acetonitrile and trichloromethane similarly inhibited nitrification. Methanol and dichloromethane equilibrated for 60 mins also significantly delayed nitrification, although to a lesser extent. Inhibition of nitrification was not permanent, and nitrification activity was eventually restored in all systems tested. None of the solvents inhibited mineralization of the added carbon source. These results indicate that special care must be taken to ensure that applications solvents do not affect the activity of sensitive microbial populations, such as the nitrifiers, that may be part of a study.
Abstract:
Phytoremediation is an emerging technology for the remediation of mine tailings, a global problem for which conventional remediation technologies are costly. There are two approaches to phytoremediation of mine tailings, phytoextraction and phytostabilization. Phytoextraction involves translocation of heavy metals from mine tailings to the plant shoot biomass followed by plant harvest, while phytostabilization focuses on establishing a vegetative cap that does not shoot accumulate metals but rather immobilizes metals within the tailings. Phytoextraction is currently limited by low rates of metal removal which is a combination of low biomass production and insufficiently high metal uptake into plant tissue. Phytostabilization is currently limited by a lack of knowledge of the minimum amendments required (e.g., compost, irrigation) to support long-term plant establishment. This review addresses both strategies within the context of two specific climate types: temperate and arid. In temperate environments, mine tailings are a source of metal leachates and acid mine drainage that contaminate nearby waterways. Mine tailings in arid regions are subject to eolian dispersion and water erosion. Examples of phytoremediation within each of these environments are discussed. Current research suggests that phytoextraction, due to high implementation costs and long time frames, will be limited to sites that have high land values and for which metal removal is required. Phytostabilization, due to lower costs and easier implementation, will be a more commonly used approach. Complete restoration of mining sites is an unlikely outcome for either approach. © 2007 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
Abstract:
In this work, we report on the evaporative deposition of bacteria from a drying aqueous drop on mica as a function of the bacterial suspension age. For sufficiently aged bacterial suspensions, residues are small and more filled-in than residues formed from fresh suspensions on similarly aged mica. In addition, the interior deposition pattern transitions from a cellular film characteristic of fresh suspensions to a cracked carpet pattern for aged suspensions. Suspension aging related changes in the residues are attributed to accumulation of organic materials such as DNA, RNA, proteins, and other bacterial components in the suspension. The aging process is also observed to be at least partially dependent on ventilation of the suspension during aging. © 2010 Materials Research Society.
Mine wastes introduce anthropogenic weathering profiles to the critical zone that often remain unvegetated for decades after mining cessation. As such, they are vulnerable to wind and water dispersion of particulate matter to adjacent ecosystems and residential communities. In sulfide-rich ore tailings, propagation to depth of the oxidative weathering front controls the depth-variation in speciation of major and trace elements. Despite the prevalence of surficial mine waste deposits in arid regions of the globe, few prior studies have been conducted to resolve the near-surface profile of sulfide ore tailings weathered under semi-arid climate. We investigated relations between gossan oxidative reaction-front propagation and the molecular speciation of iron and sulfur in tailings subjected to weathering in a semi-arid climate at an EPA Superfund Site in central Arizona (USA). Here we report a multi-method data set combining wet chemical and synchrotron-based X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES) methods to resolve the tight coupling of iron (Fe) and sulfur (S) geochemical changes in the top 2 m of tailings. Despite nearly invariant Fe and S concentration with depth (130-140 and 100-120 g kg(-1), respectively), a sharp redox gradient and distinct morphological change was observed within the top 0.5 m, associated with a progressive oxidative alteration of ferrous sulfides to (oxyhydr)oxides and (hydroxy)sulfates. Transformation is nearly complete in surficial samples. Trends in molecular-scale alteration were co-located with a decrease in pH from 7.3 to 2.3, and shifts in Fe and S lability as measured via chemical extraction. Initial weathering products, ferrihydrite and gypsum, transform to schwertmannite, then jarosite-group minerals with an accompanying decrease in pH. Interestingly, thermodynamically stable phases such as goethite and hematite were not detected in any samples, but ferrihydrite was observed even in samples with the lowest pH, indicating its metastable persistence in these semiarid tailings. The resulting sharp geochemical speciation gradients in close proximity to the tailings surface have important implications for plant colonization, as well as mobility and bioavailability of co-associated toxic metal(loid)s. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
PMID: 9271853;Abstract:
Pseudomonas aeruginosa produces rhamnolipids which are tenso-active compounds with potential industrial and environmental applications. There are two main types of rhamnolipids produced in liquid cultures, rhamnosyl-β- hydroxydecanoyl-β-hydroxydecanoate (mono-rhamnolipid) and rhamnosyl- rhamnosyl-β-hydroxydecanoyl-β-hydroxydecanoate (di-rhamnolipid). In this work we report the selective isolation of a rhamnolipid deficient mutant (IBT8), which does not accumulate mono-rhamnolipid while still producing di- rhamnolipid. IBT8 was selected after random mutagenesis with Tn501; yet, its mono-rhamnolipid deficiency was found associated neither with its Tn501 insertion nor with a possible alteration in the rhlABRI genes for rhamnosyl- transferase 1 synthesis. Different possibilities to explain IBT8 phenotype are discussed.
