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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, June 2009, p. 3455-3460, Vol. 75, No. 11
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.00274-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Biofilm Bacterial Community Structure in Streams Affected by Acid Mine Drainage{triangledown} ,{dagger}

Gavin Lear,1* Dev Niyogi,2 Jon Harding,3 Yimin Dong,1 and Gillian Lewis1

School of Biological Sciences, The University of Auckland, 3a Symonds Street, Auckland, New Zealand,1 Department of Biological Sciences, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, Missouri,2 School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand3

Received 3 February 2009/ Accepted 1 April 2009

We examined the bacterial communities of epilithic biofilms in 17 streams which represented a gradient ranging from relatively pristine streams to streams highly impacted by acid mine drainage (AMD). A combination of automated ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis with multivariate analysis and ordination provided a sensitive, high-throughput method to monitor the impact of AMD on stream bacterial communities. Significant differences in community structure were detected among neutral to alkaline (pH 6.7 to 8.3), acidic (pH 3.9 to 5.7), and very acidic (pH 2.8 to 3.5) streams. DNA sequence analysis revealed that the acidic streams were generally dominated by bacteria related to the iron-oxidizing genus Gallionella, while the organisms in very acidic streams were less diverse and included a high proportion of acidophilic eukaryotes, including taxa related to the algal genera Navicula and Klebsormidium. Despite the presence of high concentrations of dissolved metals (e.g., Al and Zn) and deposits of iron hydroxide in some of the streams studied, pH was the most important determinant of the observed differences in bacterial community variability. These findings confirm that any restoration activities in such systems must focus on dealing with pH as the first priority.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: School of Biological Sciences, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand. Phone: 64 (9) 373 7599. Fax: 64 (9) 373 7416. E-mail: g.lear{at}auckland.ac.nz

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 10 April 2009.

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://aem.asm.org/.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, June 2009, p. 3455-3460, Vol. 75, No. 11
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.00274-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





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