ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Diversity of Bacterial Communities in the Acid
Mine Drainage Ecosystem of an Abandoned
Polymetallic Mine in Poland
More details
Hide details
1
Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Poznan University of Life Sciences, Poznań, Poland
2
Faculty of Geology, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
3
Department of General and Environmental Microbiology, Poznan University of Life Sciences, Poznań, Poland
Submission date: 2018-02-26
Final revision date: 2018-05-14
Acceptance date: 2018-05-28
Online publication date: 2019-01-29
Publication date: 2019-03-01
Corresponding author
Tomasz Cłapa
Poznań University of Life Sciences, Wojska Polskiego 28, 60-637 Poznań, Poland
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2019;28(4):2109-2119
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
An investigation of microbial communities able to form biofilms and inhabiting an extreme acid
mine drainage (AMD) polymetallic mine with pH ranging from 1.0 to 1.5 was carried out. Presented
results concern an abandoned polymetallic mine that has not been studied so far. Geochemical analyses
of the sampled area reveals a high concentration of heavy metals – especially arsenic and iron derived
from the decomposition of arsenopyrite. Cryo-SEM analyses of hydrated biofilm reveals its structure and
composition, showing intact extracellular polysaccharides (EPS) with minerals submerged in an EPS
matrix. Thus a direct connection between bacteria and biotransformation of surrounding minerals can
be observed. Microbial community analyses were carried out by using the non-cultivated method based
on DNA extraction, cloning, sequencing, and molecular phylogenetics. Bioinformatics analyses reveals
the presence of bacteria belonging to three phylogenic groups: Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, and
Actinobacteria. The majority of them were characterized as iron-oxidizing bacteria. The information
presented in this work is critical to understand which microorganisms are important to AMD production
in the studied area and involved in iron and sulfur cycles.