skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Oligotrophic wetland sediments susceptible to shifts in microbiomes and mercury cycling with dissolved organic matter addition

Journal Article · · PeerJ
DOI:https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4575· OSTI ID:1437036
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [4]
  1. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
  2. The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States)
  3. Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve, Superior, WI (United States)
  4. Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
  5. Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States); Duke Univ., Durham, NC (United States)

Recent advances have allowed for greater investigation into microbial regulation of mercury toxicity in the environment. In wetlands in particular, dissolved organic matter (DOM) may influence methylmercury (MeHg) production both through chemical interactions and through substrate effects on microbiomes. We conducted microcosm experiments in two disparate wetland environments (oligotrophic unvegetated and high-C vegetated sediments) to examine the impacts of plant leachate and inorganic mercury loadings (20 mg/L HgCl2) on microbiomes and MeHg production in the St. Louis River Estuary. Our research reveals the greater relative capacity for mercury methylation in vegetated over unvegetated sediments. Further, our work shows how mercury cycling in oligotrophic unvegetated sediments may be susceptible to DOM inputs in the St. Louis River Estuary: unvegetated microcosms receiving leachate produced substantially more MeHg than unamended microcosms. We also demonstrate (1) changes in microbiome structure towardsClostridia, (2) metagenomic shifts toward fermentation, and (3) degradation of complex DOM; all of which coincide with elevated net MeHg production in unvegetated microcosms receiving leachate. Together, our work shows the influence of wetland vegetation in controlling MeHg production in the Great Lakes region and provides evidence that this may be due to both enhanced microbial activity as well as differences in microbiome composition.

Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
1437036
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1528944
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA-120643
Journal Information:
PeerJ, Vol. 6; ISSN 2167-8359
Publisher:
PeerJ Inc.Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 8 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (78)

Methanogens: Principal Methylators of Mercury in Lake Periphyton journal September 2011
Rapid Shifts in Soil Nutrients and Decomposition Enzyme Activity in Early Succession Following Forest Fire journal September 2017
Challenges and opportunities for managing aquatic mercury pollution in altered landscapes journal January 2018
A review of global environmental mercury processes in response to human and natural perturbations: Changes of emissions, climate, and land use journal January 2018
Bacterial periphytic communities related to mercury methylation within aquatic plant roots from a temperate freshwater lake (South-Western France) journal June 2017
Complex Glycan Catabolism by the Human Gut Microbiota: The Bacteroidetes Sus-like Paradigm journal June 2009
Mercury cycling in agricultural and managed wetlands of California, USA: Experimental evidence of vegetation-driven changes in sediment biogeochemistry and methylmercury production journal June 2014
Responses of activities, abundances and community structures of soil denitrifiers to short-term mercury stress journal March 2012
Dissolved Organic Matter Concentration and Quality Influences upon Structure and Function of Freshwater Microbial Communities journal June 2006
Coupling Spatiotemporal Community Assembly Processes to Changes in Microbial Metabolism journal December 2016
Organic Material:  The Primary Control on Mercury Methylation and Ambient Methyl Mercury Concentrations in Estuarine Sediments journal March 2006
Microbes as Engines of Ecosystem Function: When Does Community Structure Enhance Predictions of Ecosystem Processes? journal February 2016
Complete genome sequence of Syntrophobotulus glycolicus type strain (FlGlyRT) journal July 2011
KEGG: Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes journal January 2000
Mercury in the Aquatic Environment: A Review of Factors Affecting Methylation journal July 2001
Beaver Ponds Increase Methylmercury Concentrations in Canadian Shield Streams along Vegetation and Pond-Age Gradients journal August 2009
Fluorescence spectroscopy opens new windows into dissolved organic matter dynamics in freshwater ecosystems: A review journal October 2010
Mercury Methylation by Novel Microorganisms from New Environments journal September 2013
Deterministic influences exceed dispersal effects on hydrologically-connected microbiomes: Deterministic assembly of hyporheic microbiomes journal March 2017
A blueprint for blue carbon: toward an improved understanding of the role of vegetated coastal habitats in sequestering CO 2 journal January 2011
Stoichiometric control of organic carbon–nitrate relationships from soils to the sea journal April 2010
Stochastic and deterministic assembly processes in subsurface microbial communities journal March 2012
Carbon limitation of denitrification rates in an anaerobic groundwater system journal December 1992
Glycosyltransferases: managers of small molecules journal June 2005
UniFrac: an effective distance metric for microbial community comparison journal September 2010
Biogeochemical drivers of microbial community convergence across actively retreating glaciers journal October 2016
From the litter layer to the saprolite: Chemical changes in water-soluble soil organic matter and their correlation to microbial community composition journal January 2014
IMG: the integrated microbial genomes database and comparative analysis system journal December 2011
Redox effects on the microbial degradation of refractory organic matter in marine sediments journal November 2013
Anaerobic decomposition of humic substances by Clostridium from the deep subsurface journal January 2016
Effect of Dissolved Organic Matter Source and Character on Microbial Hg Methylation in Hg–S–DOM Solutions journal May 2013
Mercury body burdens in Gambusia holbrooki and Erimyzon sucetta in a wetland mesocosm amended with sulfate journal April 2005
The Genetic Basis for Bacterial Mercury Methylation journal February 2013
Global prevalence and distribution of genes and microorganisms involved in mercury methylation journal October 2015
Lactose digestion by yogurt beta-galactosidase: influence of pH and microbial cell integrity journal February 1987
Recent advances in the study of mercury methylation in aquatic systems journal May 2017
UPARSE: highly accurate OTU sequences from microbial amplicon reads journal August 2013
Nramp defines a family of membrane proteins. journal October 1995
Structural and Catalytic Diversity within the Amidohydrolase Superfamily journal May 2005
Water management impacts rice methylmercury and the soil microbiome journal December 2016
Fire severity shapes plant colonization effects on bacterial community structure, microbial biomass, and soil enzyme activity in secondary succession of a burned forest journal November 2015
Effect of salinity on mercury methylating benthic microbes and their activities in Great Salt Lake, Utah journal March 2017
Sulfate Addition Increases Methylmercury Production in an Experimental Wetland journal June 2006
Influence of Dissolved Organic Matter on the Environmental Fate of Metals, Nanoparticles, and Colloids journal April 2011
Interactions between mercury and dissolved organic matter––a review journal April 2004
Using network analysis to explore co-occurrence patterns in soil microbial communities journal September 2011
Effects of mercury on soil microbial communities in tropical soils of French Guyana journal January 2009
Sulfate reduction and trichloroethylene biodegradation by a marine microbial community from hydrothermal vents sediments journal January 2011
The Chemical Cycle and Bioaccumulation of Mercury journal November 1998
QIIME allows analysis of high-throughput community sequencing data journal April 2010
Microbial mercury methylation in Antarctic sea ice journal August 2016
Binding of Mercury(II) to Dissolved Organic Matter:  The Role of the Mercury-to-DOM Concentration Ratio journal August 2002
Contributions of fermentative acidogenic bacteria and sulfate-reducing bacteria to lactate degradation and sulfate reduction journal May 2008
Geochemical influences and mercury methylation of a dental wastewater microbiome journal August 2015
Mercury(II) Sorption to Two Florida Everglades Peats:  Evidence for Strong and Weak Binding and Competition by Dissolved Organic Matter Released from the Peat journal October 2002
Pfam: the protein families database journal November 2013
Groundwater–surface water mixing shifts ecological assembly processes and stimulates organic carbon turnover journal April 2016
Ultra-high-throughput microbial community analysis on the Illumina HiSeq and MiSeq platforms journal March 2012
Experimental removal of wetland emergent vegetation leads to decreased methylmercury production in surface sediment: VEGETATION EFFECTS ON MEHG PRODUCTION journal March 2009
Mechanisms Regulating Mercury Bioavailability for Methylating Microorganisms in the Aquatic Environment: A Critical Review journal February 2013
TonB-dependent iron acquisition: mechanisms of siderophore-mediated active transport†: TonB-dependent iron acquisition journal May 1998
Carbon limitation of soil respiration under winter snowpacks: potential feedbacks between growing season and winter carbon fluxes journal February 2005
Responses of microbial food web to increased allochthonous DOM in an oligotrophic subarctic lake journal March 2013
Dissolution of cinnabar (HgS) in the presence of natural organic matter journal March 2005
Fire severity shapes plant colonization effects on bacterial community structure, microbial biomass, and soil enzyme activity in secondary succession of a burned forest dataset January 2015
The role of inorganic carbon limitation in biological nitrogen removal of extremely ammonia concentrated wastewater journal March 2003
In situ sulphate stimulation of mercury methylation in a boreal peatland: Toward a link between acid rain and methylmercury contamination in remote environments journal September 1999
Red versus green leaves: transcriptomic comparison of foliar senescence between two Prunus cerasifera genotypes journal February 2020
Infant gut microbiota characteristics generally do not modify effects of lipid-based nutrient supplementation on growth or inflammation: secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial in Malawi journal September 2020
Hg bioavailability and impact on bacterial communities in a long-term polluted soil journal January 2011
Impacts of coal ash on methylmercury production and the methylating microbial community in anaerobic sediment slurries journal January 2016
Mercury Methylation by Dissimilatory Iron-Reducing Bacteria journal October 2006
Development of Novel Sugar Isomerases by Optimization of Active Sites in Phosphosugar Isomerases for Monosaccharides journal November 2012
Methylation and demethylation of mercury under controlled redox, pH and salinity conditions. journal January 1984
Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria: Principal Methylators of Mercury in Anoxic Estuarine Sediment † journal January 1985
Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria Methylate Mercury at Variable Rates in Pure Culture and in Marine Sediments journal June 2000
Mechanistic and functional versatility of radical SAM enzymes journal July 2010
Fire severity shapes plant colonization effects on bacterial community structure, microbial biomass, and soil enzyme activity in secondary succession of a burned forest dataset January 2015

Cited By (4)

Substratum‐associated microbiota journal September 2019
Molecular evidence for novel mercury methylating microorganisms in sulfate-impacted lakes journal February 2019
Substratum‐associated microbiota journal August 2020
Substratum-Associated Microbiota journal October 2001