Heavy metal effects on multitrophic level microbial communities and insights for ecological restoration of an abandoned electroplating factory site. (15th June 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wang, Xuehua; Dai, Zhongmin; Zhao, Haochun; Hu, Lingfei; Dahlgren, Randy A.; Xu, Jianming
• Is Part Of: Environmental pollution. Volume 327(2023)
• Publication Date: 2023-06-15
• Subjects: Bioindicator -- Ecological restoration -- Ecological risk assessment -- Generalist -- Soil health -- Soil microbial functional diversity; Pollution -- Periodicals; Pollution -- Environmental aspects -- Periodicals; Environmental Pollution -- Periodicals; Pollution -- Périodiques; Pollution -- Aspect de l'environnement -- Périodiques; Pollution -- Effets physiologiques -- Périodiques; Pollution; Pollution -- Environmental aspects; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 363.73
• DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2023.121548
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0269-7491

Abstract

Abstract: The response of soil microbes to heavy metal pollution provides a metric to evaluate the soil health and ecological risks associated with heavy metal contamination. However, a multitrophic level perspective of how soil microbial communities and their functions respond to long-term exposure of multiple heavy metals remains unclear. Herein, we examined variations in soil microbial (including protists and bacteria) diversity, functional guilds and interactions along a pronounced metal pollution gradient in a field surrounding an abandoned electroplating factory. Given the stressful soil environment resulting from extremely high heavy metal concentrations and low nutrients, beta diversity of protist increased, but that of bacteria decreased, at high versus low pollution sites. Additionally, the bacteria community showed low functional diversity and redundancy at the highly polluted sites. We further identified indicative genus and "generalists" in response to heavy metal pollution. Predatory protists in Cercozoa were the most sensitive protist taxa with respect to heavy metal pollution, whereas photosynthetic protists showed a tolerance for metal pollution and nutrient deficiency. The complexity of ecological networks increased, but the communication among the modules disappeared with increasing metal pollution levels. Subnetworks of tolerant bacteria displaying functional versatility ( Blastococcus, Agromyces and Opitutus ) and photosynthetic protists (microalgae) became more complex with increasing metal pollution levels, indicating their potential for use in bioremediation and restoration of abandoned industrial sites contaminated by heavy metals. Graphical abstract: Image 1 Highlights: Protist community was more sensitive to heavy metals than bacterial community. Soil functional diversity and redundancy were extremely low under metal pollution. Photosynthetic protist and metabolically versatile bacteria were resistant species. Generalist protist and bacteria played key roles in the co-occurrence networks.