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Alum Addition Triggers Hypoxia in an Engineered Pit Lake
Here, we examine the geobiological response to a whole-lake alum (aluminum sulfate) treatment (2016) of Base Mine Lake (BML), the first pilot-scale pit lake established in the Alberta oil sands region. The rationale for trialing this management amendment was based on its successful use to reduce int...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8953953/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35336086 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10030510 |
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author | Jessen, Gerdhard L. Chen, Lin-Xing Mori, Jiro F. Nelson, Tara E. Colenbrander Slater, Gregory F. Lindsay, Matthew B. J. Banfield, Jillian F. Warren, Lesley A. |
author_facet | Jessen, Gerdhard L. Chen, Lin-Xing Mori, Jiro F. Nelson, Tara E. Colenbrander Slater, Gregory F. Lindsay, Matthew B. J. Banfield, Jillian F. Warren, Lesley A. |
author_sort | Jessen, Gerdhard L. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Here, we examine the geobiological response to a whole-lake alum (aluminum sulfate) treatment (2016) of Base Mine Lake (BML), the first pilot-scale pit lake established in the Alberta oil sands region. The rationale for trialing this management amendment was based on its successful use to reduce internal phosphorus loading to eutrophying lakes. Modest increases in water cap epilimnetic oxygen concentrations, associated with increased Secchi depths and chlorophyll-a concentrations, were co-incident with anoxic waters immediately above the fluid fine tailings (FFT) layer post alum. Decreased water cap nitrate and detectable sulfide concentrations, as well as increased hypolimnetic phospholipid fatty acid abundances, signaled greater anaerobic heterotrophic activity. Shifts in microbial community to groups associated with greater organic carbon degradation (i.e., SAR11-LD12 subclade) and the SRB group Desulfuromonodales emerged post alum and the loss of specialist groups associated with carbon-limited, ammonia-rich restricted niches (i.e., MBAE14) also occurred. Alum treatment resulted in additional oxygen consumption associated with increased autochthonous carbon production, watercap anoxia and sulfide generation, which further exacerbate oxygen consumption associated with on-going FFT mobilized reductants. The results illustrate the importance of understanding the broader biogeochemical implications of adaptive management interventions to avoid unanticipated outcomes that pose greater risks and improve tailings reclamation for oil sands operations and, more broadly, the global mining sector. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8953953 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-89539532022-03-26 Alum Addition Triggers Hypoxia in an Engineered Pit Lake Jessen, Gerdhard L. Chen, Lin-Xing Mori, Jiro F. Nelson, Tara E. Colenbrander Slater, Gregory F. Lindsay, Matthew B. J. Banfield, Jillian F. Warren, Lesley A. Microorganisms Article Here, we examine the geobiological response to a whole-lake alum (aluminum sulfate) treatment (2016) of Base Mine Lake (BML), the first pilot-scale pit lake established in the Alberta oil sands region. The rationale for trialing this management amendment was based on its successful use to reduce internal phosphorus loading to eutrophying lakes. Modest increases in water cap epilimnetic oxygen concentrations, associated with increased Secchi depths and chlorophyll-a concentrations, were co-incident with anoxic waters immediately above the fluid fine tailings (FFT) layer post alum. Decreased water cap nitrate and detectable sulfide concentrations, as well as increased hypolimnetic phospholipid fatty acid abundances, signaled greater anaerobic heterotrophic activity. Shifts in microbial community to groups associated with greater organic carbon degradation (i.e., SAR11-LD12 subclade) and the SRB group Desulfuromonodales emerged post alum and the loss of specialist groups associated with carbon-limited, ammonia-rich restricted niches (i.e., MBAE14) also occurred. Alum treatment resulted in additional oxygen consumption associated with increased autochthonous carbon production, watercap anoxia and sulfide generation, which further exacerbate oxygen consumption associated with on-going FFT mobilized reductants. The results illustrate the importance of understanding the broader biogeochemical implications of adaptive management interventions to avoid unanticipated outcomes that pose greater risks and improve tailings reclamation for oil sands operations and, more broadly, the global mining sector. MDPI 2022-02-26 /pmc/articles/PMC8953953/ /pubmed/35336086 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10030510 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Jessen, Gerdhard L. Chen, Lin-Xing Mori, Jiro F. Nelson, Tara E. Colenbrander Slater, Gregory F. Lindsay, Matthew B. J. Banfield, Jillian F. Warren, Lesley A. Alum Addition Triggers Hypoxia in an Engineered Pit Lake |
title | Alum Addition Triggers Hypoxia in an Engineered Pit Lake |
title_full | Alum Addition Triggers Hypoxia in an Engineered Pit Lake |
title_fullStr | Alum Addition Triggers Hypoxia in an Engineered Pit Lake |
title_full_unstemmed | Alum Addition Triggers Hypoxia in an Engineered Pit Lake |
title_short | Alum Addition Triggers Hypoxia in an Engineered Pit Lake |
title_sort | alum addition triggers hypoxia in an engineered pit lake |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8953953/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35336086 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10030510 |
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