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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
earth and planetary sciences
Temporal shifts in the geochemistry and microbial community structure of an ultradeep mine borehole following isolation
Geomicrobiology Journal, Volume 20, No. 6, Year 2003
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Description
A borehole draining a water-bearing dyke fracture at3.2-km depth in a South African Au mine was isolatedfrom the open mine environment. Geochemical, stable isotopic, nucleic acid-based, and phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analyses were employed as culture- independent means for assessing shifts in the microbial community and habitat as the system equilibrated with the native rock-water environment. Over a two-month period, the pH increased from 5.5 to 7.4, concurrent with a drop in pe from —2 to -3. Whereas rDNAs related to Desulfotomaculum spp. represented the major clone type encountered throughout, lipid biomarker profiling along with 16S rDNA clone library and terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analyses indicated the emergence of other Gram-positive and deeply-branching lineages in samples during the later stages of the equilibration period. A biofilm that formed on the mine wall below the borehole produced abundant rDNAs related to the α Proteobacteria. β and γ-Proteobacteria appeared to transiently bloom in the borehole shortly after isolation. Chemical modeling and sulfur isotope analyses of the borehole effluent indicated that microbial sulfate reduction was the major terminal electron-accepting process shortly after isolation, whereas Fe+3 reduction dominated towards the end of the experiment. The persistence of Desulfotomaculum-like bacteria throughout suggests that these organisms adapted to changing geochemical conditions as the redox decreased and pH increased following the isolation of the borehole from the mine atmosphere. The restoration of anaerobic aquatic chemistry to this borehole environment may have allowed microbiota indigenous to the local basalt aquifer to become more dominant among the diverse collection of bacterial lineages present in the borehole. © Taylor & Francis Inc.
Authors & Co-Authors
Moser, Duane P.
United States, Princeton
Princeton University
Onstott, Tullis C.
United States, Princeton
Princeton University
Fredrickson, James K.
United States, Richland
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Brockman, Fred J.
United States, Richland
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Balkwill, David L.
United States, Tallahassee
Florida State University
Drake, Gwendolyn R.
United States, Tallahassee
Florida State University
Pfiffner, Susan M.
United States, Knoxville
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
White, David C.
United States, Knoxville
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Takai, Ken
Japan, Yokosuka
Japan Agency for Marine-earth Science and Technology
Pratt, Lisa M.
United States, Bloomington
Indiana University Bloomington
Fong, Jon
United States, Bloomington
Indiana University Bloomington
Sherwood-Lollar, Barbara
Canada, Toronto
University of Toronto
Slater, Greg F.
Canada, Toronto
University of Toronto
Phelps, Tommy J.
United States, Oak Ridge
Ornl Environmental Sciences Division
Spoelstra, N.
South Africa
Driefontein Consolidated Mine
DeFlaun, Mary F.
United States, Atlanta
Geosyntec Consultants, Inc.
Southam, Gordon G.
Canada, London
Western University
Welty, A. T.
United States, Flagstaff
Northern Arizona University
Baker, Brett J.
United States, Madison
University of Wisconsin-madison
Hoek, Joost
United States, Philadelphia
University of Pennsylvania
Statistics
Citations: 100
Authors: 20
Affiliations: 14
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1080/713851170
ISSN:
01490451
e-ISSN:
15210529
Research Areas
Environmental
Study Approach
Quantitative