Microbial Geochemistry of the Acidic Saline Pit Lake of Brunita Mine (La Unión, SE Spain)

We present the first study of a unique acidic lake formed in the Brunita open pit (La Unión mines, Cartagena, SE Spain). This pit lake exhibits chemical characteristics typical of AMD, such as low pH (pH 2.2–5.0) and high iron content (500–6400 mg/L total Fe). It also has some of the highest sulfate...

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Autores: Sánchez-España, Javier, Yusta, Iñaki, Ilin, Andrey, van der Graaf, Charlotte, Sánchez-Andrea, Irene
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2020
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/413739
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/413739
https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85078474535
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Acidic mine pit lakes
Natural attenuation
Bacterial sulfate reduction
Metal pollution
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spelling Microbial Geochemistry of the Acidic Saline Pit Lake of Brunita Mine (La Unión, SE Spain)Sánchez-España, JavierYusta, IñakiIlin, Andreyvan der Graaf, CharlotteSánchez-Andrea, IreneAcidic mine pit lakesNatural attenuationBacterial sulfate reductionMetal pollutionWe present the first study of a unique acidic lake formed in the Brunita open pit (La Unión mines, Cartagena, SE Spain). This pit lake exhibits chemical characteristics typical of AMD, such as low pH (pH 2.2–5.0) and high iron content (500–6400 mg/L total Fe). It also has some of the highest sulfate concentrations reported to date in pit lakes (26,000–38,400 mg/L SO42-) and transition metals like Mn (up to 2000 mg/L), Zn (500 mg/L), or Cu (250 mg/L). In addition, we found abnormally high concentrations of salt-forming ions (e.g. 5500 mg/L Mg, 750–1300 mg/L Cl, and 300–630 mg/L Na). The resulting high salinity (58‰) at the bottom creates a meromictic lake despite the lake’s low relative depth (9%), with an anoxic, reducing monimolimnion isolated from the oxygenated mixolimnion. In the monimolimnion, we observed decreased metal concentrations (e.g. Cu, Zn, Cd, Cr, Pb, Th). We hypothesize that these metals are being removed by interaction with biogenic H<inf>2</inf>S and subsequent precipitation as metal sulfides. Scanning electron microscopy shows sub-micron, spherical particles of ZnS in close association with cocci and rod-like bacteria. Analysis of the microbial community composition through 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing revealed different genera of sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) in the monimolimnion, including Desulfobacca, Desulfomonile, Desulfurispora, and Desulfosporosinus. Their apparent ability to reduce sulfate and selectively precipitate potentially toxic metals, and their resistance to this lake’s extreme geochemical conditions, makes these bacteria of great interest for biotechnological applications (e.g. bioremediation and biomining).This study was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness through the National Research Agency (FEDER funds, Grant CGL2016-74984-R). We thank our colleagues from the IGME laboratories (Jesús Reyes, Ana Nieto, Mercedes Castillo, Maite Andrés) for chemical analyses of waters and sediments. We thank the personnel at the SGIker facilities of the Basque Country University (Javier Sanguesa, Ana Martínez-Amesti, and Sergio Fernández) for their help during mineralogical characterization. ISA was funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) through SIAM Gravitation grant 024.002.002. We thank Iame Alves Guedes for processing the filter samples, and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions on an earlier version of this manuscript.Peer reviewedSpringer NatureAgence Nationale de la Recherche (France)Federación Española de Enfermedades RarasMinisterio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (España)Ministerio de Asuntos Económicos y Transformación Digital (España)Sánchez-España, Javier [0000-0001-6295-1459]Yusta, Iñaki [0000-0003-2582-5327]Sánchez-Andrea, Irene [0000-0001-6977-3026]Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas [https://ror.org/02gfc7t72]202620262020info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501Publisher's versioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/10261/413739https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85078474535reponame:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSICinstname:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)Inglés#PLACEHOLDER_PARENT_METADATA_VALUE#info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/MINECO//CGL2016-74984-RSíinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:digital.csic.es:10261/4137392026-05-22T06:33:51Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Microbial Geochemistry of the Acidic Saline Pit Lake of Brunita Mine (La Unión, SE Spain)
title Microbial Geochemistry of the Acidic Saline Pit Lake of Brunita Mine (La Unión, SE Spain)
spellingShingle Microbial Geochemistry of the Acidic Saline Pit Lake of Brunita Mine (La Unión, SE Spain)
Sánchez-España, Javier
Acidic mine pit lakes
Natural attenuation
Bacterial sulfate reduction
Metal pollution
title_short Microbial Geochemistry of the Acidic Saline Pit Lake of Brunita Mine (La Unión, SE Spain)
title_full Microbial Geochemistry of the Acidic Saline Pit Lake of Brunita Mine (La Unión, SE Spain)
title_fullStr Microbial Geochemistry of the Acidic Saline Pit Lake of Brunita Mine (La Unión, SE Spain)
title_full_unstemmed Microbial Geochemistry of the Acidic Saline Pit Lake of Brunita Mine (La Unión, SE Spain)
title_sort Microbial Geochemistry of the Acidic Saline Pit Lake of Brunita Mine (La Unión, SE Spain)
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Sánchez-España, Javier
Yusta, Iñaki
Ilin, Andrey
van der Graaf, Charlotte
Sánchez-Andrea, Irene
author Sánchez-España, Javier
author_facet Sánchez-España, Javier
Yusta, Iñaki
Ilin, Andrey
van der Graaf, Charlotte
Sánchez-Andrea, Irene
author_role author
author2 Yusta, Iñaki
Ilin, Andrey
van der Graaf, Charlotte
Sánchez-Andrea, Irene
author2_role author
author
author
author
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv Agence Nationale de la Recherche (France)
Federación Española de Enfermedades Raras
Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (España)
Ministerio de Asuntos Económicos y Transformación Digital (España)
Sánchez-España, Javier [0000-0001-6295-1459]
Yusta, Iñaki [0000-0003-2582-5327]
Sánchez-Andrea, Irene [0000-0001-6977-3026]
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas [https://ror.org/02gfc7t72]
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Acidic mine pit lakes
Natural attenuation
Bacterial sulfate reduction
Metal pollution
topic Acidic mine pit lakes
Natural attenuation
Bacterial sulfate reduction
Metal pollution
description We present the first study of a unique acidic lake formed in the Brunita open pit (La Unión mines, Cartagena, SE Spain). This pit lake exhibits chemical characteristics typical of AMD, such as low pH (pH 2.2–5.0) and high iron content (500–6400 mg/L total Fe). It also has some of the highest sulfate concentrations reported to date in pit lakes (26,000–38,400 mg/L SO42-) and transition metals like Mn (up to 2000 mg/L), Zn (500 mg/L), or Cu (250 mg/L). In addition, we found abnormally high concentrations of salt-forming ions (e.g. 5500 mg/L Mg, 750–1300 mg/L Cl, and 300–630 mg/L Na). The resulting high salinity (58‰) at the bottom creates a meromictic lake despite the lake’s low relative depth (9%), with an anoxic, reducing monimolimnion isolated from the oxygenated mixolimnion. In the monimolimnion, we observed decreased metal concentrations (e.g. Cu, Zn, Cd, Cr, Pb, Th). We hypothesize that these metals are being removed by interaction with biogenic H<inf>2</inf>S and subsequent precipitation as metal sulfides. Scanning electron microscopy shows sub-micron, spherical particles of ZnS in close association with cocci and rod-like bacteria. Analysis of the microbial community composition through 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing revealed different genera of sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) in the monimolimnion, including Desulfobacca, Desulfomonile, Desulfurispora, and Desulfosporosinus. Their apparent ability to reduce sulfate and selectively precipitate potentially toxic metals, and their resistance to this lake’s extreme geochemical conditions, makes these bacteria of great interest for biotechnological applications (e.g. bioremediation and biomining).
publishDate 2020
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2020
2026
2026
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
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format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/10261/413739
https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85078474535
url http://hdl.handle.net/10261/413739
https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85078474535
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv #PLACEHOLDER_PARENT_METADATA_VALUE#
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dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
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dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Springer Nature
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Springer Nature
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