Bacterial community analysis of stabilized soils in proximity to an exhausted mine

Jae Eun Park, Byung Tae Lee, Byung Yong Kim, Ahjeong Son

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

Soil stabilization is a soil remediation technique that reduces the mobility of heavy metals in soils. Although it is a well-established technique, it is nonetheless essential to perform a follow-up chemical assessment via a leaching test to evaluate the immobilization of heavy metals in the soil matrix. Unfortunately, a standard chemical assessment is not sufficient for evaluation of the biological functional state of stabilized soils slated for agricultural use. Therefore, it is useful to employ a pyrosequencing-based microbial community analysis for the purpose. In this study, a recently stabilized site in the proximity of an exhausted mine was analyzed for bacterial diversity, richness, and relative abundance as well as the effect of environmental factors. Based on the Shannon and Chao1 indices and rarefaction curves, the results showed that the stabilized layer exhibited lower bacterial diversity than control soils. The prevalence of dominant bacterial populations was examined in a hierarchical manner. Relatively high abundances of Proteobacteria and Methylobacter tundripaludum were observed in the stabilized soil. In particular, there was substantial abundance of the Methylobacter genus, which is known for its association with heavy metal contamination. The study demonstrated the efficacy of (micro)biological assessment for aiding in the understanding and post-management of stabilized soils.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)420-429
Number of pages10
JournalEnvironmental Engineering Research
Volume23
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Dec 2018

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This study was supported by Ministry of Environment in Korea (GAIA G114-00056-04031) and National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2017R1A2B4005133).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Korean Society of Environmental Engineers.

Keywords

  • Bacterial community analysis
  • Heavy metal
  • Methylobacter
  • Pyrosequencing
  • Soil stabilization

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