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Risk assessment of change in respiratory gas concentrations by native culturable bacteria in the air of sulfide ore mines

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Abstract

Sulfide ores are extracted from mines at considerable depths, that having unique a physical and chemical environment. On the one hand, physical, chemical, and biological processes taken place in the rocks produce this environment; on the other hand, they form unique bacterial communities. The aim of this study was to study the native culturable aerobic bacteria present in the sulfide ores of the deposits located in the Krasnoyarsk Territory (Russia) and evaluate their activity in relation to respiratory gases (oxygen and carbon dioxide) present in air. The results of the study established that the culturable bacteria present in the sulfide ore of the N1 deposit were related to genera Bacillus and Paenibacillus (class Bacilli), genera Citricoccus, Micrococcus, Brachybacterium, Microcella, Dietzia, and Rhodococcus (class Actinomycetia) and genera Paracoccus and Pseudomonas (class Proteobacteria). The culturable bacteria of the N2 sulfide ore deposit were represented by genera Bacillus, Oceanobacillus, Alicyclobacillus (class Bacilli) and genera Micrococcus and Agromyces (class Actinomycetia). The N2 deposit community contained the strain Nor9-1, which showed a high level of similarity with the Alicyclobacillus aeris ZJ-6 iron-/sulfur-oxidizing bacterium. The model systems showed a strong correlation (r2 = 0.91–0.97) between the growth of the bacterial communities of the studied ores and changes in the concentrations of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the model atmosphere. Under the ecological optimum (specific growth rate of the culture constituting 0.519 d−1) in 7 d, oxygen decreased to 0.34–1.48% and carbon dioxide increased to 7.44–14.88%. Under the ecological pessimum (restricted available organic carbon), given the predominant development of the chemolithotrophic group of bacteria (specific growth rate of 0.045 d−1), changes in the respiratory gas concentrations constituted 0.9–2.7% of O2 and 0.06–0.16% of CO2. A relationship was established between the specific rate of O2/CO2 loss and specific growth rate of the bacterial communities. Thus, for the first time, indigenous cultivated aerobic bacteria of sulfide ores collected from the deposits of the Krasnoyarsk Territory were studied, and their effects on oxygen and carbon dioxide contents in the atmosphere of closed model systems were examined.

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Acknowledgements

This work was carried out as part of the state assignment AAAA-A19-119112290009-1 “Molecular mechanisms of adaptation of microorganisms to environmental factors” (phylogenetic diversity of cultivated bacteria in bacteriocenoses of sulfide mines) and was supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation as part of basic research program No. 0422-2019-0145-C-01 (oxygen uptake by bacteria in closed systems).

The study was performed using the equipment of the Core Facilitates Center “Research of materials and matter” at the PFRC UB RAS.

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All authors contributed to the development of this paper and took an active part in conducting experiments and analyzing and interpreting the results. The authors agreed on the sequence of authors listed and approved the final version of the article to be submitted for publication.

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Correspondence to Darya Egorova.

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The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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This work was carried out as part of the state assignment AAAA-A19-119,112,290,009–1 “Molecular mechanisms of adaptation of microorganisms to environmental factors” (phylogenetic diversity of cultivated bacteria in bacteriocenoses of sulfide mines) and was supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation as part of basic research program No. 0422–2019-0145-C-01 (oxygen uptake by bacteria in closed systems).

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Egorova, D., Pyankova, A., Shestakova, E. et al. Risk assessment of change in respiratory gas concentrations by native culturable bacteria in the air of sulfide ore mines. Environ Geochem Health 44, 1751–1765 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-021-01056-0

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