Guangdong Key Laboratory of Integrated Agro-environmental Pollution Control and Management, Guangdong Institute of Eco-environmental Science & Technology, Guangzhou 510650, China.
Key Laboratory of Water Quality and Conservation in the Pearl River Delta, Ministry of Education, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China.
Environ Pollut. 2019 Sep;252(Pt B):1872-1881. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2019.06.070. Epub 2019 Jun 19.
Antimony (Sb) contamination is a growing environmental concern due to the increasing use of this metalloid in mining and industrial activities. The remediation of Sb-contaminated soil is a lengthy and costly process. Phytoremediation has been suggested as a cost-effective method for the long-term management of Sb-contaminated sites. Various plant types have been found to thrive in contaminated sites and have the potential to remediate Sb contamination; however, their impacts on Sb speciation and the indigenous microbial community remain unclear. In the current study, soils from three types of vegetation environment (i.e., grass, forest, and agricultural) were collected from two Sb mining areas in Guizhou, China. Comparisons of geochemical and microbiological properties among the three vegetation types revealed that vegetation was a major driver of soil biogeochemical characteristics. Contaminant fractions (i.e., extractable fractions of Sb and As) had a greater influence on microbial communities in grass and forest soil, whereas pH had a greater impact in agricultural soil. This difference may indicate distinct microbe-environment interactions in agricultural soil affected by anthropogenic activity. The dominant taxa, including Flavobacterium, Geobacter, Janthinobacterium, Clostridium, and Mycobacterium responded positively to various contaminant fractions, indicating that the community had adapted to the chronically contaminated environment. However, the regulation of these dominant genera by geochemical properties appears to be taxon-specific. Our results demonstrate that vegetation type has a substantial impact on Sb and As biogeochemical cycles, and should be considered in future remediation efforts.
锑（Sb）污染是一个日益严重的环境问题，这是由于这种类金属在采矿和工业活动中的使用越来越多。污染土壤的修复是一个漫长而昂贵的过程。植物修复被认为是一种具有成本效益的方法，可用于长期管理 Sb 污染场地。已经发现各种植物类型在污染场地中茁壮成长，并且有可能修复 Sb 污染；然而，它们对 Sb 形态和土著微生物群落的影响尚不清楚。在当前的研究中，从中国贵州的两个 Sb 矿区采集了三种植被环境（即草地、森林和农业）的土壤。对三种植被类型的地球化学和微生物学性质进行比较后发现，植被是土壤生物地球化学特征的主要驱动因素。污染物分数（即 Sb 和 As 的可提取分数）对草地和森林土壤中的微生物群落有更大的影响，而 pH 值对农业土壤的影响更大。这种差异可能表明，受人为活动影响的农业土壤中存在独特的微生物-环境相互作用。优势类群包括黄杆菌属、地杆菌属、詹氏菌属、梭菌属和分枝杆菌属，它们对各种污染物分数表现出积极的响应，表明该群落已经适应了长期污染的环境。然而，这些优势属的调节似乎是特定于分类群的。我们的研究结果表明，植被类型对 Sb 和 As 的生物地球化学循环有很大的影响，在未来的修复工作中应加以考虑。
