Response of Microbial Community Function to Fluctuating Geochemical Conditions within a Legacy Radioactive Waste Trench Environment.

ABSTRACT: During the 1960s, small quantities of radioactive materials were codisposed with chemical waste at the Little Forest Legacy Site (Sydney, Australia) in 3-meter-deep, unlined trenches. Chemical and microbial analyses, including functional and taxonomic information derived from shotgun metagenomics, were collected across a 6-week period immediately after a prolonged rainfall event to assess the impact of changing water levels upon the microbial ecology and contaminant mobility. Collectively, results demonstrated that oxygen-laden rainwater rapidly altered the redox balance in the trench water, strongly impacting microbial functioning as well as the radiochemistry. Two contaminants of concern, plutonium and americium, were shown to transition from solid-iron-associated species immediately aft

SUBMITTER: Vazquez-Campos X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5561297 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature