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Unraveling the Unseen Players in the Ocean - A Field Guide to Water Chemistry and Marine Microbiology
Published on: November 5, 2014
Preliminary assessment of microbial mats in seawater metal remediation
Natalia Gabriela Morales Pontet1, Carolina Fernández2,3, Vanesa Liliana Perillo4,5
1Instituto Argentino de Oceanografía, CONICET - Universidad Nacional del Sur (UNS), Camino Carrindanga 7.5 Km, B8000FWB, Bahia Blanca, Argentina. nmpontet@iado-conicet.gob.ar.
Abstract:
Microbial mats have a special role in the removal of metals in marine environment. This study aimed to experimentally determine the efficiency of Cr removal from seawater by microbial mats. The effect of Cr on the microphytobenthic community and the influence of an aerated condition on the removal of metal and microorganisms were also considered. Hence, microbial mat samples were subdivided in 4 groups: submerged in Cr (chromium 2 mg/L without aeration), Cr + O2 (chromium 2 mg/L with aeration), SW + O2 (filtered seawater with aeration), and a control: SW (filtered seawater with neither chromium nor aeration). Water and microbial mat subsamples were used to determine Cr concentrations, organic matter content, granulometry, physicochemical parameters, chlorophyll a, phaeopigments, and quantitative analysis of the microphytobenthic community. Cr removal efficiency from seawater was 95% for the Cr treatment and 99% for the Cr + O2 treatment. The abundance of cyanobacteria tended to decrease between the initial and final days of the assay, whereas the opposite trend was observed for diatoms. Two aspects are worth noting in the paper: microbial mats efficiently removed Cr from seawater at a concentration of 2 mg Cr/L and the removal of Cr by microbial mats was more efficient with water aeration.
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