scholarly journals Gypsum Amendment Induced Rapid Pyritization in Fe-Rich Mine Tailings from Doce River Estuary after the Fundão Dam Collapse

Minerals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 201
Author(s):  
Amanda D. Ferreira ◽  
Hermano M. Queiroz ◽  
Maira P. Kaneagae ◽  
Gabriel N. Nóbrega ◽  
Xosé L. Otero ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mine Tailings ◽  
River Estuary ◽  
Sulfide Mineral ◽  
Morphological Evidence ◽  
Mineral Precipitation ◽  
Black Spots ◽  
Metal Immobilization ◽  
River Estuarine ◽  
Doce River ◽  
Pb Immobilization

Mine tailings containing trace metals arrived at the Doce River estuary, after the world’s largest mine tailings disaster (the Mariana disaster) dumped approximately 50 million m3 of Fe-rich tailings into the Doce River Basin. The metals in the tailings are of concern because they present a bioavailability risk in the estuary as well as chronic exposure hazards. Trace metal immobilization into sulfidic minerals, such as, pyrite, plays a key role in estuarine soils; however, this process is limited in the Doce River estuarine soil due to low sulfate inputs. Thus, to assess the use of gypsum amendment to induce pyritization in deposited tailings, a mesocosm experiment was performed for 35 days, with vinasse added as carbon source and doses of gypsum (as a sulfate source). Chemical and morphological evidence of Fe sulfide mineral precipitation was observed. For instance, the addition of 439 mg of S led to the formation of gray and black spots, an Fe2+ increase and decrease in sulfides in the solution, an increase in pyritic Fe, and a greater Pb immobilization by pyrite at the end of the experiment. The results show that induced pyritization may be a strategy for remediating metal contamination at the Doce River estuary.

Sources and Distribution of Sediments

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas S. Bianchi
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
River Estuary ◽  
Deep Ocean ◽  
Sediment Flux ◽  
Turbidity Currents ◽  
Geological Time ◽  
Physical Weathering ◽  
Coastal Margin ◽  
River Estuarine

The uplift of rocks above sea level on the Earth’s surface over geological time, produces rock material that can be altered into soils and sediments by weathering processes. Over geological time, a fraction of sediments can be sequestered for storage in the ocean basins—with most of it stored in the coastal margin. However, much of this material is modified via processing in large river estuarine systems which can ultimately affect the long-term fate of these terrigenous materials. Sediments produced from weathering of igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks are principally transported to the oceans through river systems of the world. The major routes of sediment transport from land to the open ocean can simply be illustrated through the following sequence: streams, rivers, estuaries, shallow coastal waters, canyons, and the abyssal ocean. It should be noted that significant and long-term storage occurs in river valleys and floodplains (Meade, 1996). Submarine canyons are also thought to be temporary storage sites for land-derived sediments; however, episodic events such as turbidity currents and mud slides can move these sediments from canyons to the abyssal ocean (more details on coastal margin transport to the deep ocean are provided in chapter 16). The annual sediment flux from rivers to the global ocean is estimated to range from 18 to 24 × 109 metric tonnes (Milliman and Syvitski, 1992). Conversely, estuaries will eventually fill-in with fluvial inputs of sediments over time, and ultimately reach an equilibrium whereby export and import of sediment supply are balanced (Meade, 1969). For example, recent studies have shown that sediment accumulation in the Hudson River estuary, both short (Olsen et al., 1978) and long term (Peteet and Wong, 2000), is in equilibrium with sea level rise. More specifically, it is believed that river flow controls the direction of sediment flux in the Hudson, while variations in spring-neap tidal amplitude control the magnitude (Geyer et al., 2001). Weathering is typically separated into two categories: physical and chemical. Physical weathering involves the fragmentation of parent rock materials and minerals through processes such as freezing, thawing, heating, cooling, and bioturbation (e.g., endolithic algae, fungi, plant roots, and earthworms).

A Field Experiment to Test the Importance of Estuaries for Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) Survival: Short-Term Results

1988 ◽  
Vol 45 (8) ◽  
pp. 1366-1377 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Stevenson Macdonald ◽  
Colin D. Levings ◽  
Carey D. McAllister ◽  
U. H. M. Fagerlund ◽  
J. R. McBride
Keyword(s):  
Transition Zone ◽  
Chinook Salmon ◽  
Oncorhynchus Tshawytscha ◽  
River Estuary ◽  
Dispersal Pattern ◽  
Estuarine Site ◽  
Fish Predators ◽  
Marine Site ◽  
River Estuarine ◽  
Seawater Challenge

In late April of 1983, 1984, and 1985, 140 000 marked chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) smolts (2–4 g) were transported by helicopter from Quinsam Hatchery to four release sites near Campbell River, B.C. (river, estuarine, transition, and marine), in an experiment to test the importance of estuarine residency to chinook survival. At the marine site, fish were released directly into seawater. These fish had high cortisol levels and larger interrenal nuclear diameters than those at the estuarine site, indicating a transitory stress response to seawater exposure. Nevertheless, there was little direct mortality due to stress or osmoregulatory shock at any of the release sites. Marine-released fish were exposed to more bird and fish predators. Mortality of caged chinook was higher at the marine location than at all other sites despite seawater challenge tests indicating that the chinook were smolted and "ready for sea." Beach seine data obtained biweekly for 4 mo after the releases showed that fish released directly into marine waters rarely dispersed to the Campbell River estuary. Fish released immediately adjacent to the mouth of the estuary (transition zone) had the widest immediate dispersal pattern, with many of them returning to the estuary. Estuarine zone fish displayed the most restricted distribution. Fish released to the river and estuary remained in the sampling area for a longer period (34–47 d) than those released in the marine or transition zone (20–23 d).

Time-sequence development of estuarine metal(loid)s following the 2015 dam failure in the Doce river estuary, Brazil

2021 ◽  
pp. 144532
Author(s):  
Fabian Sá ◽  
Cybelle Menolli Longhini ◽  
Eduardo Schettini Costa ◽  
Cesar Alexandro da Silva ◽  
Renata Caiado Cagnin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
River Estuary ◽  
Time Sequence ◽  
Dam Failure ◽  
Doce River

scholarly journals Pyrite oxidization accelerates bacterial carbon sequestration in copper mine tailings

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 573-583
Author(s):  
Yang Li ◽  
Zhaojun Wu ◽  
Xingchen Dong ◽  
Zifu Xu ◽  
Qixin Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Sequestration ◽  
Mine Tailings ◽  
Sulfide Mineral ◽  
Stable Isotope Probing ◽  
Gene Copy ◽  
Autotrophic Bacteria ◽  
Two Samples ◽  
Cbbl Gene ◽  
Heavy Fractions

Abstract. Polymetallic mine tailings have great potential as carbon sequestration tools to stabilize atmospheric CO2 concentrations. However, previous studies focused on carbonate mineral precipitation, whereas the role of autotrophic bacteria in mine tailing carbon sequestration has been neglected. In this study, carbon sequestration in two samples of mine tailings treated with FeS2 was evaluated using 13C isotope, pyrosequencing and DNA-based stable isotope probing (SIP) analyses to identify carbon fixers. Mine tailings treated with FeS2 exhibited a higher percentage of 13C atoms (1.76±0.06 % for Yangshanchong and 1.36±0.01 % for Shuimuchong) than did controls over a 14-day incubation, which emphasized the role of autotrophs in carbon sequestration with pyrite addition. Pyrite treatment also led to changes in the composition of bacterial communities, and several autotrophic bacteria increased, including Acidithiobacillus and Sulfobacillus. Furthermore, pyrite addition increased the relative abundance of the dominant genus Sulfobacillus by 8.86 % and 5.99 % in Yangshanchong and Shuimuchong samples, respectively. Furthermore, DNA SIP results indicated a 8.20–16.50 times greater gene copy number for cbbL than cbbM in 13C-labeled heavy fractions, and a Sulfobacillus-like cbbL gene sequence (cbbL-OTU1) accounted for 30.11 %–34.74 % of all cbbL gene sequences in 13C-labeled heavy fractions of mine tailings treated with FeS2. These findings highlight the importance of the cbbL gene in bacterial carbon sequestration and demonstrate the ability of chemoautotrophs to sequester carbon during sulfide mineral oxidation in mine tailings. This study is the first to investigate carbon sequestration by autotrophic bacteria in mine tailings through the use of isotope tracers and DNA SIP.

scholarly journals Chronic trace metals effects of mine tailings on estuarine assemblages revealed by environmental DNA

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelo F Bernardino ◽  
Fabiano S Pais ◽  
Louisi S Oliveira ◽  
Fabricio A Gabriel ◽  
Tiago O Ferreira ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Trace Metals ◽  
Mine Tailings ◽  
Environmental Filtering ◽  
Environmental Dna ◽  
Mine Tailing ◽  
Marine Ecology ◽  
Estuarine Ecosystems ◽  
Coastal Marine ◽  
Doce River

Mine tailing disasters have occurred worldwide and contemporary release of tailings of large proportions raise concerns of the chronic impacts that trace metals associated with tailings may have on the aquatic biodiversity. Environmental metabarcoding (eDNA) offers an yet poorly explored opportunity for biological monitoring of impacted aquatic ecosystems from mine tailings and contaminated sediments. eDNA has been increasingly recognized to be an effective method to detect previously unrecognized small-sized Metazoan taxa, but their ecological responses to environmental pollution has not been assessed by metabarcoding. Here we evaluated chronic effects of trace metal contamination from sediment eDNA of the Rio Doce estuary, 1.7 years after the Samarco mine tailing disaster, which released over 40 million m3of iron tailings in the Rio Doce river basin. We identified 123 new sequence variants (eOTUs) of benthic taxa and an assemblage composition dominated by Nematoda, Crustacea and Platyhelminthes; typical of other estuarine ecosystems. We detected environmental filtering on the meiofaunal assemblages and multivariate analysis revealed strong influence of Fe contamination, supporting chronic impacts from mine tailing deposition in the estuary. This was in contrast to environmental filtering of meiofaunal assemblages of non-polluted estuaries. Here we suggest that the eDNA metabarcoding technique provides an opportunity to fill up biodiversity gaps in coastal marine ecology and may become a valid method for long term monitoring studies in mine tailing disasters and estuarine ecosystems with high trace metals content.

Natural and anthropogenic forcing on the dynamics of virioplankton in the Yangtze river estuary

2006 ◽  
Vol 86 (3) ◽  
pp. 543-550 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nianzhi Jiao ◽  
Yanlin Zhao ◽  
Tingwei Luo ◽  
Xiulin Wang
Keyword(s):  
Yangtze River ◽  
Anthropogenic Impacts ◽  
River Estuary ◽  
Distribution Patterns ◽  
Yangtze River Estuary ◽  
The Yangtze River ◽  
Viral Abundance ◽  
Estuarine Area ◽  
Algal Virus ◽  
River Estuarine

Seasonal investigation of virus dynamics by flow cytometry was conducted in the Yangtze river estuarine area in April, August, November 2002 and February 2003, and a supplemental investigation in the inner estuary and downstream of the river was conducted in October 2005. The majority of the total viral abundance was bacteriophage and only 5.4% of the total was algal virus. Total viral abundance varied with season and location, ranging from 6.75×105–1.68×107 particles/ml, and the virus:bacterium ratio (VBR) ranged from 1.52 to 72.02 with a mean of 8.7. In the present study, viral abundance peaked in both the summer and the winter, unlike the typical seasonal pattern reported in the literature, in which viral abundance peaks in the summer when bacterial hosts are also at their most abundant. However, the driving forces for the two peaks reported here were totally different, the summer viral abundance peak coupled with the development of bacterial hosts which were controlled largely by temperature year-round and by trophic state occasionally, while the winter one seemed to be multi-factor controlled. The host-phage interaction was no longer predominant in control of the winter viral abundance as bacterial abundance was lowest in this season. The winter low temperature would help maintain a high viral abundance as high temperatures might increase viral inactivation and viral decay; the VBR peak values actually occurred in the winter. More importantly, the high virus-containing freshwater discharge in winter due to a higher proportion of anthropogenic sewage relative to low natural flooding in winter run-off, turned out to be the first factor contributing to the high winter viral abundance and VBR values. In addition, the variation of intrusion of warm and relatively oligotrophic water from oceanic currents played a role alternating the distribution patterns of temperature, salinity and trophic conditions and consequently the distribution patterns of virus and bacteria seasonally and spatially. Dynamics of virus in the Yangtze river estuarine area is thus characterized by distinct seasonal and spatial variations due to natural forcing and by pronounced alternation of the regular patterns due to anthropogenic impacts.

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