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Effects of heavy metals on bacterial community structures in two lead–zinc tailings situated in northwestern China

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Abstract

We evaluated the variations of bacterial communities in six heavy metal contaminated soils sampled from Yanzi Bian (YZB) and Shanping Cun (SPC) tailings located in northwestern China. Statistical analysis showed that both the heavy metals and soil chemical properties could affect the structure and diversity of the bacterial communities in the tailing soils. Cd, Cu, Zn, Cr, Pb, pH, SOM (soil organic matters), TP (total phosphorus) and TN (total nitrogen) were the main driving factors of the bacterial community variations. As a consequence, the relative abundances of certain bacterial phyla including Proteobacteria, Chloroflexi, Firmicutes, Nitrospirota and Bacteroidota were significantly increased in the tailing soils. Further, we found that the abundance increasement of these phyla were mainly contributed by certain species, such as s__unclassified_g__Thiobacillus (Proteobacteria), s__unclassified_g__Sulfobacillus (Firmicutes) and Leptospirillum ferriphilum (Nitrospirota). Thus, these species were considered to be strongly heavy metal tolerant. Together, our findings will provide a useful insight for further bioremediations of these contaminated areas.

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The datasets used during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to all the colleagues whose comments that have improved the quality of the manuscript

Funding

This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant number 31860176, 31700059, 41977204), Key Research and Development Program of Shaanxi (2020ZDLSF06-06), Key Research and Development Program of Gansu (20YF3FA037), Natural Science Basic Research Program of Shaanxi (2021JM-510, 2021JQ-791, 2021JQ-792), Science and Technology Program of Xi’an (20NYYF0013, 21NYYF0038), Three-year Action Plan Project of Xi’an University (2021XDJH39), XAWLKYTD012, Dean’s Fund (YZJJ202102, YZJJ202110) and National Undergraduate Training Program for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (S202011080011).

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HL and YS conceived, designed and performed the main experiments, analyzed the data, wrote and revised the manuscript; YH, GL, MZ, JJ, CL, YC, ZY and XL: experimental procedure; TG and XL: supervision, conceptualization and revision of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Tianpeng Gao.

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Communicated by Erko Stackebrandt.

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Li, H., Shen, Y., He, Y. et al. Effects of heavy metals on bacterial community structures in two lead–zinc tailings situated in northwestern China. Arch Microbiol 204, 78 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-021-02699-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-021-02699-4

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