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Alkaline mine drainage drives stream sediment microbial community structure and function.

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Area of Science:

  • Environmental microbiology
  • Ecosystem monitoring
  • Biomonitoring

Background:

  • Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding offers cost-effective ecosystem health monitoring.
  • Central Appalachian streams are impacted by alkaline drainage from mountaintop coal mining.
  • Microbial community responses in different environmental compartments to mining are not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • Investigate sediment microbiomes in mining-impacted streams.
  • Determine how microbial community composition and function respond to mining.
  • Identify potential microbial bioindicators for biomonitoring.

Main Methods:

  • 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing of sediment microbiomes.
  • Analysis of microbial community structure and predicted metabolic pathways.
  • Correlation of microbial data with environmental variables (S, Se, %C, %N).

Main Results:

  • Mining significantly shifted microbial community structure, enriching the Planctomycetes phylum.
  • Species richness in bulk sediments increased by approximately 51%.
  • 23 out of 31 significantly altered metabolic pathways showed negative responses to mining.

Conclusions:

  • Alkaline mountaintop mining drainage restructures sediment microbiomes.
  • Environmental factors like S, Se, %C, and %N drive microbial community and functional changes.
  • 12 microbial indicators sensitive to mining were identified for long-term stream monitoring.