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Biogeochemical Cycling of Arsenic in Groundwater and Soils

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Water Quality and Contamination".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 October 2023) | Viewed by 1865

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology & School of Environmental Studies, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), Wuhan 430074, China
Interests: arsenic; arsenic contaminations; arsenic toxicity; arsenic remediation; arsenic omics
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Arsenic contaminations in groundwater and soils widely exist in varieties of environments and severely affect approximately hundreds of millions of people. Many factors, such as chemical and biological reactions, hydrogeological conditions, as well as anthropogenic activities drive the geochemical cycle of arsenic. Originally, arsenic exists in various minerals and rocks. Under the actions of these factors, solid arsenic would be subjected to weathering and transformation and released into sediments, where soluble As would be re-transformed, immobilized or mineralized.  Under reducing conditions, the arsenic in sediments would be transformed, mobilized and discharged to groundwater. During these processes, arsenic could be converted to methylated species, and even complex compounds. Some methylated As species are volatile. The biogeochemical processes of arsenic are also coupled to those of other elements by redox reactions under anaerobic conditions. 

This Special Issue offers a wide view of the biogeochemical processes of arsenic in sedimental aquifers and soils, as well as the latest developments in bioremediation approaches. The issue has a broad scope encompassing not only original research articles but also reviews and comments. The topics covered by this Special Issue include, but are not limited to:

  • Compositions and functional characterizations of microbial communities from arsenic-contaminated sites, microbial mobilization and transformation processes of arsenic.
  • Environmental bioremediation: linked to surface water, groundwater and site remediation.
  • Ecotoxicology: arsenic interacts with plants, animals and microorganisms; effects of arsenic on human health via exposure to contaminated surface water, groundwater and foods.
  • Biogeochemical processes of arsenic in surface water, sedimental aquifers and soils as revealed by genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic analyses.
  • Chemical investigations of different arsenic species in sediments and soils.
  • AI technology application.
  • As-metabolizing microorganisms.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Xian-Chun Zeng
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • arsenic
  • arsenic contaminations
  • arsenic toxicity
  • arsenic remediation
  • arsenic omics

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

12 pages, 2334 KiB  
Article
A Novel Mn- and Fe-Oxides-Reducing Bacterium with High Activity to Drive Mobilization and Release of Arsenic from Soils
by Jianyu Xiong, Yifan Xu, Yang Li and Xian-Chun Zeng
Water 2023, 15(13), 2337; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15132337 - 23 Jun 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1409
Abstract
Since Mn, Fe and As contaminants often coexist in the environment, we hypothesize that the presence of multifunctional bacteria is capable of reducing Mn and Fe oxides and promoting the mobilization and release of arsenic. However, such bacteria have not been reported yet; [...] Read more.
Since Mn, Fe and As contaminants often coexist in the environment, we hypothesize that the presence of multifunctional bacteria is capable of reducing Mn and Fe oxides and promoting the mobilization and release of arsenic. However, such bacteria have not been reported yet; moreover, the impact of bacteria with the ability to simultaneously reduce Mn and Fe oxides on the formation of high-arsenic groundwater remains unclear. This study aims to address this question. Here, we found that the microbial community in the soils was able to efficiently reduce Mn oxides into Mn(II). An analysis of the microbial community structures of the soil shows that it contained Proteobacteria (41.1%), Acidobacteria (10.9%), Actinobacteria (9.5%) and other less abundant bacteria. Based on this observation, we successfully isolated a novel bacterium Cellulomonas sp. CM1, which possesses both Mn- and Fe-oxide-reducing activities. Under anaerobic conditions, strain CM1 can reduce Mn oxides, resulting in the production of 13 mg/L of Mn(II) within a span of 10 days. Simultaneously, it can reduce Fe oxides, leading to the generation of 9 mg/L of Fe(II) within 9 days when a yeast extract is used as an electron donor. During these reduction reactions, the cells were grown into a density of OD600 0.16 and 0.09, respectively, suggesting that Mn(IV) is more beneficial for the bacterial growth than Fe(III). Arsenic release assays indicate that after 108 days of anoxic incubation, approximately 126.2, 103.2 and 81.5 μg/L As(V) were mobilized and released from three soil samples, respectively, suggesting that CM1 plays significant roles in driving mobilization of arsenic from soils. These findings shed new light on the microbial processes that lead to the generation of arsenic-contaminated groundwater. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biogeochemical Cycling of Arsenic in Groundwater and Soils)
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