Extremophile hotspots linked to containerized industrial waste dumping in a deep-sea basin.

ABSTRACT: Decaying barrels on the seafloor linked to DDT contamination have raised concerns about the public health implications of decades old industrial waste dumped off the coast of Los Angeles. To explore their contents, we collected sediment cores perpendicular to five deep-sea barrels. The concentration of DDT and its breakdown products were highly elevated relative to control sites yet did not vary with distance from the barrels, suggesting that they were not associated with the contamination. Sediment cores collected through white halos surrounding three barrels were enriched in calcite and had elevated pH. The associated microbial communities were low diversity and dominated by alkalophilic bacteria with metagenome-assembled genomes adapted to high pH. A solid concretion sampled between a w

SUBMITTER: Gutleben J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12418377 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature