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Published on: December 19, 2017
Exogenous Electroactive Microbes Regulate Soil Geochemical Properties and Microbial Communities by Enhancing the
Xiaolin Zhang1, Yuxia Liu2, Qixing Zhou1
1MOE Key Laboratory of Pollution Processes and Environmental Criteria/Tianjin Key Laboratory of Environmental Remediation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300350, China.
Abstract:
Electroactive microbes can conduct extracellular electron transfer and have the potential to be applied as a bioresource to regulate soil geochemical properties and microbial communities. In this study, we incubated Fe-limited and Fe-enriched farmland soil together with electroactive microbes for 30 days; both soils were incubated with electroactive microbes and a common iron mineral, ferrihydrite. Our results indicated that the exogenous electroactive microbes decreased soil pH, total organic carbon (TOC), and total nitrogen (TN) but increased soil conductivity and promoted Fe(III) reduction. The addition of electroactive microbes also changed the soil microbial community from Firmicutes-dominated to Proteobacteria-dominated. Moreover, the total number of detected microbial species in the soil decreased from over 700 to less than 500. Importantly, the coexistence of N-transforming bacteria, Fe(III)-reducing bacteria and methanogens was also observed with the addition of electroactive microbes in Fe-rich soil, indicating the accelerated interspecies electron transfer of functional microflora.
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