Fate of U(VI) Added to a U Mining Waste Sample and the Resulting Changes in the Indigenous Bacterial Community

Background
Bacteria play an important role in biogeochemical transformations and migration of uranium (U) in nature. In order to understand how U(VI) interacts with natural bacterial communities of U mining waste piles a series of microcosm experiments was performed.
Methods
Several portions of a solid sample collected from the U mining waste pile near the city of Johanngeorgenstadt in Germany were supplemented with different amounts of U(VI), starting from the original 40 mg U/kg up to 300 mg/kg.
The solubility of the U originally present and of the added U was assessed by selective sequential extraction (SSE). The composition of bacterial communities present in the original and in the supplemented with U samples was analyzed applying 16S rDNA retrieval by using 43F and 1404R degenerated primers.
Results
SSE analysis demonstrated that in the original sample the main part of uranium was strongly bound in mineral phases. The bacterial community of this sample was predominated by Alphaproteobacteria and by representatives of Holophaga /Acidobacterium phylum.
The bacterial community structure of the sample was noticeable changed by increasing its U content to 100 mg/kg . No Holophaga/Acidobacterium and only a few representatives of Alphaproteobacteria were retrieved in this sample. Instead, a large number of sequences of mainly Gamma-Pseudomonas, and of Arthrobacter sp. were found. The propagation of several populations of Deltaproteobacteria and especially of Geobacter sp. was induced in the sample as well. After 4 weeks of incubation, most of the U added to this sample was still only weakly complexed.
The bacterial community structure of the most contaminated sample, containing 300 mg U/kg, differed significantly from the two samples described above and depended on the aeration conditions during the incubation. In this sample the number of 16S rDNA sequences representing Cytophaga/Flavobacterium /Bacteroides group was extremely high. Arthrobacter sp. populations were also identified but not as strongly predominant.
Conclusions
The addition of U(VI) to a low contaminated U mining waste sample induces significant shifting in the indigenous bacterial populations. The effect of the added U(VI)seems to depend on its amount and on the redox conditions.