Abundant and diverse arsenic-metabolizing microorganisms in peatlands treating arsenic-contaminated mining wastewaters.

ABSTRACT: Mining operations produce large quantities of wastewater. At a mine site in Northern Finland, two natural peatlands are used for the treatment of mining-influenced waters with high concentrations of sulphate and potentially toxic arsenic (As). In the present study, As removal and the involved microbial processes in those treatment peatlands (TPs) were assessed. Arsenic-metabolizing microorganisms were abundant in peat soil from both TPs (up to 10⁸ cells g_dw ^-1 ), with arsenate respirers being about 100 times more abundant than arsenite oxidizers. In uninhibited microcosm incubations, supplemented arsenite was oxidized under oxic conditions and supplemented arsenate was reduced under anoxic conditions, while little to no oxidation/reduction was observed in N

SUBMITTER: Kujala K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7187466 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature