Abstract
Surface sediments at the former military base Hradcany, Czech Republic, heavily contaminated with hydrocarbons, were remediated over years by air-sparging. The sediments show a strong magnetic enhancement at the groundwater fluctuation zone. Here we describe the isolation of a new Fe(III)-reducing and magnetite-producing bacterial strain Geothrix fermentans HradG1from this magnetic and redox-dynamic layer. This isolation underlines that the genus Geothrix is a relevant group of bacteria in hydrocarbon-contaminated environments that undergo dynamic oxic-anoxic redox fluctuations. The Fe(III)-reducing metabolic activity of these organisms potentially leads to changing magnetic soil properties that can potentially be used to identify biogeochemical hotspots.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 863-873 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Geomicrobiology Journal |
| Volume | 30 |
| Issue number | 10 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Nov 2013 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We would like to thank Carsten Leven, Nawrass Ameen and Eduard Petrovsky for help with sampling at the field site in Hradcany. James Byrne and Christoph Berthold are acknowledged for XRD measurements, Karin Stoegerer for help with the molecular analyses, and Nina Rohrbach for flavin measurements. This project was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).
Keywords
- biodegradation
- biomineralization
- groundwater
- iron reduction
- molecular ecology
