Novel and Unexpected Microbial Diversity in Acid Mine Drainage in Svalbard (78° N), Revealed by Culture-Independent Approaches.

ABSTRACT: Svalbard, situated in the high Arctic, is an important past and present coal mining area. Dozens of abandoned waste rock piles can be found in the proximity of Longyearbyen. This environment offers a unique opportunity for studying the biological control over the weathering of sulphide rocks at low temperatures. Although the extension and impact of acid mine drainage (AMD) in this area is known, the native microbial communities involved in this process are still scarcely studied and uncharacterized. Several abandoned mining areas were explored in the search for active AMD and a culture-independent approach was applied with samples from two different runoffs for the identification and quantification of the native microbial communities. The results obtained revealed two distinct microbial co

SUBMITTER: Garcia-Moyano A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5023264 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature