Scholarlink

<p>Our understanding of the impacts of historical contamination from copper mines on microbial decomposer communities in freshwater streams remains limited, despite the prevalence of abandoned mines across landscapes. The study objective was to characterize the ongoing impacts of historical copper mining on microbial decomposer communities in freshwater streams several decades following stream ecosystem restoration. Bacterial and fungal DNA were extracted from leaf litter bags submerged at upstream and downstream sampling sites in each of three mining-impacted streams and at one sampling site in each of two reference streams that did not have any historical or contemporary mining activities. We applied next-generation sequencing with 16S rRNA and ITS gene amplicons. We identified associations between numerous bacterial taxa at different phylogenetic levels and mining-impacted conditions in streams that could potentially become indicators of mining activity that could be used to improve mine restoration and environmental monitoring efforts. However, unlike the bacterial communities, fungal communities showed no associations with metal contamination, nor with other environmental variables. Microbial communities play an essential role in decomposition of organic matter and nutrient cycling in streams, and so it is important to consider their responses during aquatic ecosystem recovery from anthropogenic disturbance such as historical metal mining.</p>

错误：搜索内容不能为空，请输入英文关键词
错误：关键词超出字数限制，请精简
高级检索

Lasting responses of bacterial but not fungal leaf litter communities to historical copper mining impacts in freshwater streams

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年10月15日

查看全文
  • Sophie Baril,
  • Steven W. Kembel,
  • Natalie Westwood,
  • Melbert Schwarz,
  • Jean Carreau,
  • Alison M. Derry

摘要

Our understanding of the impacts of historical contamination from copper mines on microbial decomposer communities in freshwater streams remains limited, despite the prevalence of abandoned mines across landscapes. The study objective was to characterize the ongoing impacts of historical copper mining on microbial decomposer communities in freshwater streams several decades following stream ecosystem restoration. Bacterial and fungal DNA were extracted from leaf litter bags submerged at upstream and downstream sampling sites in each of three mining-impacted streams and at one sampling site in each of two reference streams that did not have any historical or contemporary mining activities. We applied next-generation sequencing with 16S rRNA and ITS gene amplicons. We identified associations between numerous bacterial taxa at different phylogenetic levels and mining-impacted conditions in streams that could potentially become indicators of mining activity that could be used to improve mine restoration and environmental monitoring efforts. However, unlike the bacterial communities, fungal communities showed no associations with metal contamination, nor with other environmental variables. Microbial communities play an essential role in decomposition of organic matter and nutrient cycling in streams, and so it is important to consider their responses during aquatic ecosystem recovery from anthropogenic disturbance such as historical metal mining.