Abstract
Microbial consortia of composite biofilms, grown in surface water of acidicmining lakes near Lauchhammer, Germany, were investigated. The red-brown colored lake water was acidic (pH 2.5), had high concentrations of Fe(III), Al(III), and sulphate and low concentrations of dissolved organic matter. As a result the abundance of bacteria in the lake is with 104 cells mL-1 rather low. One input of organic material into the lake are autumnal leaves from trees, growing in the lakeside area. From aliquots of unfixed birch leave biofilms the 16S rRNA genes were amplified by PCR and community fingerprints were determined by single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analysis. Specific bands within the fingerprints were extracted from SSCP gels and sequenced for the taxonomical affiliation.These results were compared with those from the second type of biofilms which were grown on sterile substrata, floating submersed in surface waters of the lakes. By excising the bands from the gel and sequencing the individual bands bacterial taxa, common to both types of biofilms, were found but also some, which were only present in one type of biofilm. Ultrathin sectioned biofilms often showed bacteria associated with electron dense particles as main inorganic constituents. Elemental microanalysis by energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) revealed them to contain iron, sulfur and oxygen as main elemental fractions and electron diffraction ring pattern analysis classified them to be schwertmannite. These bacteria and their interactions with each other as well as with the inorganic minerals formed in this lake generally is of great interest, in order to use these results for bioremediation applications.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bassam, B. J., Caetano-Anolles, G. and Gresshoff, P. M.: 1991, ‘Fast and Sensitive Silber Staining of DNA in Polyacrylamid Gels’, Anal. Biochem. 80, 81–84.
Bigham, J. M., Schwertmann, U. and Carlson, L.: 1992, ‘Mineralogy of Precipitates formed by the Biogeochemical Oxidation of Fe(II) in Mine Drainage’, in H. C. W. Skinner and R. W. Fitzpatrick(eds), Biomineralization Processes of Iron and Managanese - Modern and Ancient Environments, Catena Supplement 21, Cremlingen-Destedt, Germany, pp. 219–232.
Bigham, J. M., Schwertmann, U., Traina, S. J., Winland, R. L. and Wolf, M.: 1996, ‘Schwertmannite and the Chemical Modeling of Iron in Acid Sulfate Waters’, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 60, 2111–2121.
Bozau, E., Knöller, K. and Strauch, G.: 2000, ‘Hydrogeologische und Geochemische Modellierung an einem Schwefelsauren Tagebaurestsee zur Biotechnologischen Sanierung’, in L. Meierling, N. Schmidt, W. Babel, W. Geller, M. Höfle and U. Stottmeister (eds), Systemintegrierte Umweltbiotechnologie zur Sanierung von Organisch und Anorganisch Belasteten Grund-und Oberflächenwässern, UFZ-Bericht 4/2000, pp. 10–18.
Büttner, O., Becker, A., Kellner, S., Kuehn, B., Wendt-Potthoff, K., Zachmann, D. W. and Friese, K.: 1998, ‘Geostatistical Analysis of Surface Sediments in an Acidic Mining Lake’, Water, Air, and Soil Pollut. 108, 297–316.
Hargreaves, J. W., Lloyd, E. J. H. and Whitton, B. A.: 1975, Freshwater Biology 5, 563–576.
Kapfer, M.: 1998, ‘Assessment of the Colonization and Primary Production of Microphytobenthos in the Littoral of Acidic Mining Lakes in Lusatia (Germany)’, Water, Air, and Soil Pollut. 108, 331–340.
Lünsdorf, H., Strömpl, C., Osborn, A. M., Bennasar, A., Moore, E. R. B., Abraham, W.-R. and Timmis, K. N.: 2001, ‘Approach to Analyze Interactions of Microorganisms, Hydrophobic Substrates, and Soil Colloids Leading to Formation of Composite Biofilms, and to Study Initial Events in Microbiogeological Processes’, Meth. Enzym. 336, 317–331.
Lünsdorf, H., Brümmer, I., Timmis, K. N. and Wagner-Döbler, I.: 1997, ‘Metal Selectivity of In Situ Microcolonies in Biofilms of the Elbe River’, J. Bacteriol. 179, 31–40.
Nixdorf, B. and Kapfer, M.: 1998, ‘Stimulation of Phototrophic Pelagic and Benthic Metabolism Close to Sediments in Acidic Mining Lakes’, Water, Air, and Soil Pollut. 108, 317–330.
Schwieger, F. and Tebbe, C. C.: 1998, ‘A New Approach to Utilize PCR-single Strand-conformation Polymorphism for 16S rRNA Gene-based Microbial Community Analysis’, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 64, 4870–4876.
Bigham, J. M. and Nordstrom, D. K.: 2000, ‘Iron and Aluminium Hydroxysulfates from Acid Sulfate Waters’, in C. A. Alpers, J. L. Jambor and D. K. Nordstrom (eds), Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, Vol. 40, Mineralogical Society of America, Washington, DC, pp. 351–403.
Wenderoth, D. F., Pöhler, I. and Höfle, M. G.: 2000, ‘Analyse der Taxonomischen Diversität der Bakteriellen Lebensgemeinschaften des Restlochs 111 mit Molekularbiologischen Methoden’, in L. Meierling, N. Schmidt, W. Babel, W. Geller, M. Höfle and U. Stottmeister (eds), Systeminteg-rierte Umweltbiotechnologie zur Sanierung von Organisch und Anorganisch Belasteten Grund-und Oberflächenwässern, UFZ-Bericht 4/2000, pp. 51–58.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lünsdorf, H., Wenderoth, D.F. & Abraham, WR. Composite Biofilms grown in Acidic Mining Lakes and assessed by Electron Microscopy and Molecular Techniques. Water, Air, & Soil Pollution: Focus 2, 69–79 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1019947511476
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1019947511476