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Coupling between pentachlorophenol dechlorination and soil redox as revealed by stable carbon isotope, microbial community structure, and biogeochemical data Yan Xu, Yan He, Qian Zhang, Jian-Ming Xu, and David E. Crowley Environ. Sci. Technol., Just Accepted Manuscript • DOI: 10.1021/es505040c • Publication Date (Web): 08 Apr 2015 Downloaded from http://pubs.acs.org on April 14, 2015
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Environmental Science & Technology
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Coupling between pentachlorophenol dechlorination and soil redox
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as revealed by stable carbon isotope, microbial community structure,
3
and biogeochemical data Yan Xu† Yan He †, ‡,∗∗ Qian Zhang† Jianming Xu†,∗∗ David Crowley‡
4 5
†
6
Provincial Key Laboratory of Subtropical Soil and Plant Nutrition, Zhejiang
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University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
8
‡
9
Riverside, CA 92521, USA.
Institute of Soil and Water Resources and Environmental Science, Zhejiang
Department of Environmental Sciences, University of California, Riverside,
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Abstract Art
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Abstract
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Carbon isotopic analysis and molecular-based methods were used in conjunction
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with geochemical data sets to assess the dechlorination of pentachlorophenol (PCP)
16
when coupled to biogeochemical processes in a mangrove soil having no prior history
17
of anthropogenic contamination. The PCP underwent 96% dechlorination in soil
18
amended with acetate, compared to 21% dehalogenation in control soil. Carbon
19
isotope analysis of residual PCP demonstrated an obvious enrichment of
20
3.01±0.1%). Molecular and statistical analyses demonstrated that PCP dechlorination
21
and Fe(III) reduction were synergistically combined electron-accepting processes.
22
Microbial community analysis further suggested that enhanced dechlorination of PCP
23
during Fe(III) reduction was mediated by members of the multifunctional family of
24
Geobacteraceae. In contrast, PCP significantly suppressed the growth of SO42-
25
reducers, which, in turn, facilitated the production of CH4 by diversion of electrons
26
from SO42- reduction to methanogenesis. The integrated data regarding stoichiometric
27
alterations in this study gives direct evidence showing PCP, Fe(III) and SO42-
28
reduction, and CH4 production are coupled microbial processes during changes in soil
29
redox.
13
C (εC, -
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INTRODUCTION
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Biogeochemical cycles involving carbon (C), nitrogen (N), sulfur (S) and iron
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(Fe) are driven by fundamental oxidation-reduction processes in which electrons flow
33
from carbon substrates and other electron donors to those elements that serve as
34
terminal electron acceptors for microbial respiration1. These same active redox
35
processes also play a key role in the transformation of biogenic minerals and catalyze
36
the oxidation and reduction of anthropogenic chemicals, including many organic
37
contaminants (OCs)2. The speciation, bioavailability and toxicity of the OCs
38
determine the type and magnitude of these biotransformations and select for different
39
degrader communities that can influence contaminant dynamics under specific redox
40
conditions3.
41
Pentachlorophenol (PCP) is a highly toxic, mutagenic and carcinogenic
42
polychlorinated organic compound that is widely used as a wood preservative and
43
versatile insecticide4-5. Under anaerobic conditions, reductive dechlorination is
44
thought to be coupled to biogeochemical processes driven by electrons flow from
45
hydrogen, reduced minerals, and carbon substrates (e.g. acetate, lactate) to PCP,
46
which serves as an electron acceptor6-7. Usually, reducing reactions of various ionic
47
species in soils such as NO3-, Fe(III), Mn(IV) and SO42- that serve as terminal electron
48
acceptors which are active and important redox reactions in anaerobic environments8.
49
Thus, the dechlorination of PCP depends on the abundance and activity of
50
dehalorespiring bacteria which could be influenced by interaction with alternative
51
terminal electron accepting processes. In a previous study using a liquid pure culture
52
system, we demonstrated that the iron-reducing bacterium, Clostridium beijerinckii Z,
53
could dechlorinate PCP under anaerobic conditions, and that the dechlorination rate
54
was accelerated during simultaneous Fe(III) reduction6. This gave preliminary
55
evidence that the anaerobic declorination of PCP was interactively affected by
56
coexisting electron acceptors such as Fe(III). As natural soil systems contain various
57
and abundant electron donors/acceptors, anaerobic dechlorination of PCP is expected
58
to be more complex. Therefore, anaerobic transformation of PCP still needs to be
59
examined by qualitative and quantitative data to reveal the relevant functional
60
microbial groups, and interactions between PCP and multiple environmental variables
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that control redox reactions in soils.
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Compound specific isotope analysis (CSIA) of stable carbon (C) has been
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increasingly used to identify and quantify the degradation parent OCs in contaminated
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systems9-10. The method is based on isotopic fractionation (13C/12C) that occurs during
65
preferential transformation of molecules containing lighter isotopes (12C) relative to
66
those containing heavier isotopes (13C) in the target molecule. In this manner, the
67
residual parent compound becomes progressively enriched in heavy isotopes (13C) and
68
depleted in light isotopes (12C) during the degradation of OCs11. When there are also
69
non-destructive processes such as dilution, sorption, and volatilization that lead to
70
disappearance of the target compound, the CISA method provides a means to estimate
71
the contribution of enzymatic processes12. Recently, this method has been used in
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studies of anaerobic transformation of chloroethylenes (CEs)11-15 and chlorophenols16,
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and for studies on the aerobic degradation of aromatic compounds or methyl-tert-
74
butyl ether (MtBE)17-18. Additionally, when used in combination with culture-
75
independent molecular techniques and stoichiometric analyses of environmental
76
variables, CSIA may provide further insight into the ‘black box’ of microorganisms
77
that are involved in biotic transformation processes, and lead to a better understanding
78
of the mechanisms that underpin biogeochemical transformations of pollutants in
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soils19.
80
In this study, soil incubation experiments were carried out to examine the
81
processes that are involved in reductive dechlorination of PCP when coupled with
82
biogeochemical redox cycles for C, Fe and S. Analytical procedures were developed
83
for: (1) stable carbon isotope analysis to assess the extent and mechanisms involved in
84
the reductive dechlorination of PCP, (2) correlation analysis between PCP
85
dechlorination and measurement of relevant environmental factors (chloride ion (Cl-),
86
dissolved organic carbon (DOC), dissolved organic nitrogen (DON), total HCl-
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extractable Fe (FeHCl), redox potential (Eh), carbon dioxide (CO2), ferrous ion (Fe(II),
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bivalent manganese (Mn(II), sulfate (SO42-), sulfides (RSCs), methane (CH4)) during
89
incubation, and (3) use of phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) profiles, quantitative real-
90
time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and high-throughput sequencing (MiSeq) to
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assess microbial community structures and specific functional genes that are relevant
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to reductive dechlorination of PCP. Our hypothesis is that the reductive dechlorination
93
of PCP and the natural biogeochemical soil redox (reduction of Fe(III) and SO42-, and
94
emission of CH4) were all mutually-influenced coupling processes. 4
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MATERIALS AND METHODS
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Soils
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Soil samples were collected from a coastal mangrove soil near Taishan city in
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Guangdong province in China (21°48.991’N, 112°27.848’E). The soil had a long
99
history of strongly reducing conditions and contained abundant reduced iron minerals
100
and sulfides, but was deficient in nitrogen. The soil samples were collected at 20 cm
101
intervals down to a 1 meter depth in the soil profile, after which the soils were air-
102
dried naturally and passed through a 1 mm sieve prior to use in experiments. The
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basic physicochemical properties of the five soil layers were analyzed and the results
104
are described in Section S-1 and Figure S1 in the Supporting Information (SI).
105
Soil Anaerobic Incubation
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The sieved soils were divided into two equal portions for generation of PCP
107
spiked and unspiked treatment groups. To prepare PCP spiked soils, 0.3 kg portions of
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soil were spiked with 10 mL PCP solution (3000 mg L-1 dissolved in methanol),
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mixed evenly using a glass rod, and dried for 24 h to remove the methanol solvent.
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The spiked soil portion from each profile was then added to 0.3 kg of the
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corresponding soil four more times to provide an initial concentration of 20 mg PCP
112
kg-1 soil. The polluted soils were then allowed to equilibrate for one week at room
113
temperature. All of the mixing processes were performed using an anaerobic chamber
114
(Don Whitley Scientific, England) to exclude air and prevent oxidation of the soil
115
mineral components.
116
The effects of acetate and PCP were compared using four treatments using 1:1
117
(w/v) soil/water mixtures prepared from each soil layer. In brief, mixtures containing
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15 g soil in 15 mL H2O were incubated in 150 mL serum bottles containing: (i)
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acetate + PCP spiked soil, (ii) PCP spiked soil, (iii) acetate + unspiked soil, and (iv)
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unspiked, unamended soil, which served as a control treatment. An abiotic soil
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treatment was also included, using soil samples that were sterilized by γ-irradiation at
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50 kGy. The sterile water was purged of oxygen by flowing N2 through the water for
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5 hr at a gas flow rate of 5 L min-1. Acetate was added to a concentration of 20 mmol
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kg-1 soil, and the bottles were likewise purged with N2 (99.99%) for 10 min (5 L min-1)
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using a 10 mm diameter rubber hose, after which the bottles were sealed with Teflon-
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coated butyl rubber stoppers and crimp seals. The purging time (10 min) and flowing 5
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rate (5 L min-1) were selected based on a preliminary study, which testified to a
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satisfactory elimination of O2 from the experimental systems. Both treatments were
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incubated at 30 oC in the anaerobic chamber under a N2 stream. Triplicate samples
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from each treatment were destructively sampled after 7, 14, 21, 28, 42, 63 and 84 days
131
of incubation.
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Analytical Methods
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Chemical and Microbial Analytical Methods
Microbial communities and
134
functional groups, residual PCP and its metabolites in soils, as well as other major
135
molecules and ions of environmental variables were measured following previously
136
described methods that are summarized in Section S-2 and Table S1 4,20.
137 138
139
Carbon Stable Isotope Analysis
The carbon isotope fractionation in PCP
transformation was expressed according to Rayleigh equation11: 1000 + δ 13Ct C ε ln( )= ln t 13 1000 + δ C0 1000 C0
(1)
140
where δ13Ct and δ13C0 are the carbon isotope signatures of the given substrate at time t
141
and the initial time, respectively; Ct and C0 are the substrate concentration at time t
142
and the initial time; ε is the isotope enrichment factor. See detailed analytical methods
143
in Section S-2.
144
Data Processing and Statistical Analysis
Multivariate statistical analyses
145
were carried out using R and SPSS software. Relevant half reactions of electron
146
acceptors during incubations of 84 days were used to calculate the transferred electron
147
equivalent (eeq). Pearson Correlation coefficients, Multiple Correspondence Analysis
148
(MCA) and RV correlations were used to analyze the dynamic processes of
149
environmental parameters and the relationships between environmental variables and
150
microbial community structures (MCS).
151 152
RESULTS
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PCP Dechlorination and Proposed Pathway under Anaerobic Condition
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The extent of PCP transformation and formation of intermediate products in soils
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with or without acetate addition are shown in Figure 1. The PCP dechlorination
156
extents in each soil layer were significantly greater following acetate addition than
157
those without acetate addition. In the treatment without acetate (Figure 1b), the deep
158
layers (60-100cm) exhibited higher PCP dechlorination extents (average value of 93%)
159
than the upper layers (0-60cm) (average of 24%). When supplied with sufficient
160
carbon (Figure 1a), PCP dechlorination began after 7 days incubation for soils
161
collected from the 40-100 cm depths and continued for approximately 84 days, after
162
which PCP was almost totally removed with an average residual amount of 1.75% in
163
soil slurries. PCP was quantitatively transformed to 2,3,4,5-TeCP by initial
164
dechlorination at the ortho-position, and by a subsequent second dechlorination to
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produce 3,4,5-TCP (Figure 1). Traces of 3,4-DCP and 3-MCP were also detected at
166
the end of incubation period (Figure 1c, data not shown).
167
Isotope Fractionation Observed in PCP Decreasing Steps
168
Carbon isotope enrichment effects were detected during PCP dechlorination to
169
examine the extent and the mechanism of PCP dechlorination under anaerobic
170
conditions (Figure 1d). The associated C isotope enrichment factor (εC) was
171
calculated at 42 and 84 days in treatments both with and without acetate in all five soil
172
profiles, based on eq 1. The value of εC was equal to -3.01±0.1‰, and showed a
173
highly linear correlation with changes in the C isotope composition and changes in the
174
concentration of residual fraction of PCP during the degradation process (R2 = 0.97, p
175
< 0.001). The high linear consistency confirms that isotope fractionation did not differ
176
among the treatments and soil layers, which contrasts with the results showing
177
variable reaction rates for PCP reductive dechlorination as described above.
178
Dynamic Processes of Environmental Variables and Their Correlations
179
Dynamic changes occurred in all the basic physicochemical variables that were
180
associated directly or indirectly with soil redox processes (Cl-, DOC, DON, FeHCl, Eh,
181
CO2, Fe(II), Mn(II), SO42-, RSCs, CH4) during the 84 day anaerobic incubation
182
(Section S-3, Figure S3-S13 and Table S2). As expected, the reduction of Fe(III),
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SO42 and CO2 was strongly driven by addition of acetate as an electron donor and
184
carbon substrate and was observed in all five soil layers during 84 days of anaerobic
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incubation. However, there was also a significant interaction in which the presence of
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PCP as a soil contaminant had differential effects on the utilization of these three
187
terminal electron acceptors (Figure S9-S13).
188
The Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) method was used to describe,
189
explore and summarize the information contained within the large data set of these
190
dynamic processes, based on three categorical indexes of soil profiles, experimental
191
treatments and environmental factors. The first two principal dimensions of (MCA)
192
explained 49.4% (MCA1) and 46.3% (MCA2) of the total inertia, respectively (Figure
193
2a), and the three indexes were clearly separated within the first and second
194
dimensions. Axis 1 separated the treatment with or without acetate and axis 2
195
established a separation between treatments with and without PCP. Different soil
196
profiles were clearly clustered near the origin area, which indicated high
197
correspondence among the samples according to soil layer/depth. Compared to the
198
soil layers, different treatments that separated at four different quadrants exhibited
199
large variances between each other. The variables of “cDOC”, “CH4” and “CO2” that
200
related to carbon source were clustered with the treatment of “Ace” and “PCP+Ace”.
201
Fe(III) reduction was predominant in deep soil layers treated with acetate addition,
202
and the SO42- reducing processes were strongly gathered with the PCP treatment in
203
the fourth quadrant.
204
Detailed relationships between PCP dissipation and environmental variables in
205
the soil profile were further examined by Pearson pairwise correlations (Figure S14).
206
Residual PCP was significantly and negatively correlated with “Fe2+”, “RSCs” and
207
“CH4”, three important final products of electron transport processes (p < 0.001).
208
Additionally, strong negative correlations between “PCP” and “FeHCl” or Fe(II),
209
implied that high rates of PCP dechlorination would occur under conditions with
210
abundant iron and an active Fe(III)-reducing microbial community. PCP dissipation
211
could also be accelerated in soils with a higher organic carbon content, as indicated by
212
the negative correlation between “PCP” and “cDOC”. Likewise, both “Eh” and “pH”
213
were inversely correlated with “PCP” (p SO42- > CO2.
402
Although the reaction time and the redox potential of PCP reductive dechlorination
403
were similar to SO42- reduction, Villemur et al.26 suggested that Desulfitobacterium
404
spp. has the advantage of using H2 below the threshold concentration that would allow
405
sulfate reduction and methanogenesis. Therefore, it was inferred that the
406
dechlorination process should slightly prevail over sulfate reduction under anaerobic
S-3).
Conversely,
processes involving
SO42- reduction and
PCP
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conditions, and thus the sequences including PCP would be in the order of NO3- >
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Fe(III) > PCP ≥ SO42- > CO2.
409 410
Influences of Acetate / PCP Addition on the Main Electron Transporting
411
Processes
412
Biogeochemical cycling processes are generally considered to involve
413
sequential redox reactions of redox-active elements such as NO3-, Fe(III), SO42- and
414
CO23. Acetate, which is expected to be the most important product of fermentation,
415
can be widely used by multiple microbial populations35,43. In long-term flooded soil,
416
acetate serves as an important carbon source and electron donor for acetate-utilizing
417
bacteria, and is either converted to methane in methanogenic environments or to CO2
418
with NO3-, Fe(III), SO42- as alternative electron acceptors
419
acetate dramatically accelerated almost all of the reducing processes (Figure S8-S13).
420
The concentration of CO2 (Figure S8) that was generated by metabolism of acetate
421
was 20-fold greater than that for CH4 (Figure S13). This implies that ferric iron
422
reducers and sulfate reducers were active enough to outcompete methanogens for
423
acetate and diverted reducing equivalents away from CH4 production towards Fe(III),
424
SO42- and PCP reduction. MCA analysis of each treatment viewed by each index
425
showed that the distance between the treatment of “Ace+PCP” and “Ace” was closer
426
than that with the “None” and “PCP” treatments, and was highly clustered with the
427
variables of “cDOC” and “CO2” rather than “PCP” (Figure 2a). This suggested that
428
the influence of PCP in the treatment of “Ace+PCP” was relatively masked and the
429
corresponding biogeochemical reactions were more influenced by the addition of a
430
carbon source than by the presence of PCP.
44-47
. Here, the addition of
431
SO42- reduction was obviously suppressed by the PCP addition, as evidenced by
432
the sharp decrease in SO42- reduction rates following the addition of PCP (Figure S11).
433
Based on the high consistency of the decreased reduction rate of SO42- and the
434
depressed abundance of SO42- reducers when exposed to PCP, it was concluded that
435
the toxicity of PCP was the main reason for the inhibited reduction of SO42-.
436
Additionally, methanogenesis is usually the terminal process of organic matter
437
metabolism in anoxic environments48-49. It was interesting that the flux of the CH4 in
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the treatment with PCP supplement was nearly twofold greater than that without PCP
439
(Figure S13). Enumeration of the related genes (Figure 3) suggested that the
440
inhibition of sulfate reducers by the PCP toxicity resulted in a higher CH4 emission
441
rate, since a greater proportion of electrons diverted to methanogenesis, which
442
strongly supports the explanation for differences in CH4 emission between treatment
443
of “Ace+PCP” and “Ace”.
444 445
Enhanced Reductive Dechlorination of PCP Coupled with Fe(III) Reduction
446
Process
447
Analysis of the terminal electron-accepting processes, based on the redox state
448
changes of environmental variables and related microbial communities abundance,
449
indicated that Fe(III) reduction was predominant in this mangrove soil, as compared
450
to processes involving other electron acceptors. This was well evidenced by the
451
existence of abundant Fe(III) reducing bacteria and a significant correlation between
452
“Fe(II)” and PCP disappearance. Results between biotic and abiotic Fe(III) reduction
453
processes (Figure S2a) showed that the microbially mediated iron reducing process
454
was predominant in the soils under anaerobic conditions. Many studies on anaerobic
455
degradation of halogenated pollutants have shown that reductive dehalogenation
456
usually occurs under Fe(III)-reducing conditions50-52. Here, Pearson correlation
457
analysis revealed that “PCP” was significantly correlated to “FeHCl”, indicating that
458
the process of PCP reductive dechlorination was more favorable in soils that contain
459
abundant iron (Figure S14). Furthermore, the strong correlations of MCS with
460
“Fe(II)” and “PCP” showed that the bacterial communities were strongly structured
461
by Fe(III)-respiration and (de)halo-respiration processes. The observation that “PCP”
462
was highly correlated with the bacterial communities (Spearman’s coefficients, r = -
463
0.657, p < 0.01, Section S-6 and Table S5), and especially the population of Fe(III)
464
reducers “Geobacteraceae.sp” (Spearman’s coefficients, r = -0.843, p < 0.01)
465
strongly suggested that PCP dechlorination was promoted under conditions that also
466
support Fe(III) reduction.
467
A number of research groups have specifically investigated the synergistically
468
enhanced effect of reductive dehalogenation of halogenated OCs during Fe(III)-
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reduction, even though Fe(III) has been reported to be a strictly competitive electron
470
acceptor during anaerobic respiration52-54. Wei and Finneran53 showed that Fe(III)
471
reduction may actually help complete dechlorination of TCE to ethane, by controlling
472
the partial pressure of hydrogen, given that dissimilatory iron reducing bacteria can
473
reduce TCE to cis-dichloroethylene (cis-DCE). Actually, members of the genus of
474
Geobacter and Desulfuromonas within the Geobacteraceae family are metabolically
475
versatile with respect to their wide spectrum of electron donors and acceptors, and can
476
dehalogenate a wide range of halogenated aromatic and aliphatic compounds19,55-56.
477
The increase of Geobacteraceae in the qPCR and sequencing results in PCP spiked
478
soil slurries in our experiment (Figure 3, Figure S16) were likely due to growth of
479
Fe(III)-reducing bacteria that were coupled with PCP dechlorination. In this manner,
480
active Fe(III) reduction in Fe(III) rich soils should promote dechlorination of PCP to
481
lesser chlorinated chlorophenols.
482 483
IMPLICATIONS
484
Our results show that natural attenuation of PCP can occur in soils with no prior
485
history of anthropogenic contamination by organochlorines and that reductive
486
dechlorination of PCP at the ortho-position is the primary natural attenuation
487
mechanism in both surface and lower profile soil layers under long-term anaerobic
488
conditions. Fe(III) reduction was strongly associated with PCP dechlorination and
489
may be mainly mediated by dissimilatory iron reducing bacteria. The presence of PCP
490
significantly inhibited reduction of sulfate, as simultaneously evidenced by the low
491
reduction ratio and decreased numbers of sulfate reducers. This inhibition of SO42- by
492
PCP resulted in a corresponding release of methane as the community shifted to
493
methanogens. Additionally, providing sufficient carbon sources as electron donors
494
would effectively accelerate the dechlorination process through increasing the
495
diversity and abundance of dechlorinators or multifunctional microorganisms.
496
Though a systematic stoichiometric demonstration, our results provide a step
497
forward for improved understanding of natural biogeochemical processes for
498
remediation of soils by halogenated OCs such as PCP. Overall, the combination of
499
molecular and numerical biogeochemical approaches, as well as the CSIA method
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was helpful for understanding the reaction mechanisms between PCP and
501
environmental variables, and implied changes of microbial community structures
502
underlying these anoxic respiratory processes. Furthermore, the finding that acetate
503
played an important role in all of the studied redox processes including PCP
504
dechlorination, should guide future studies on the role of other electron donors
505
besides acetate for driving dechlorination of chlorinated OCs.
506 507
ASSOCIATED CONTENT
508
Supporting Information
509
Chemical and microbial community analysis methods, and details on the statistical
510
methods used to correlate dynamic processes with the environmental variables are
511
provided as online supporting information; Tables S1-S5 report the primer sets for
512
real time PCR, results for the kinetic analysis of accumulated Fe(II), and the statistics
513
generated by correlation analysis; Figures S1-S16 show the dynamic changes in
514
environmental processes during the 84 day incubation. This information is available
515
free of charge via the Internet at http://pubs.acs.org.
516 517
AUTHOR INFORMATION
518
Corresponding Author
519
∗
520
[email protected]; Corresponding author address: Institute of Soil and Water Resources
521
and Environmental Science, Zhejiang University, 866 Yuhangtang Road, Hangzhou 310058,
522
China.
Phone: +86-571-8898-2069; Fax: +86-571-8898-2069; E-mail:
[email protected];
523 524
Notes
525
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
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This research was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation
528
of China (41090284, 41322006), the National High Technology Research and
529
Development Program of China (863 Program, No. 2012AA06A203), and the
530
Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.
531
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