Dataset Information

The Potential for CH4 Production by Syntrophic Microbial Communities in Diverse Deep Aquifers Associated with an Accretionary Prism and its Overlying Sedimentary Layers.

ABSTRACT: Accretionary prisms are thick masses of sedimentary material scraped from the oceanic crust and piled up at convergent plate boundaries found across large regions of the world. Large amounts of anoxic groundwater and natural gas, mainly methane (CH4), are contained in deep aquifers associated with these accretionary prisms. To identify the subsurface environments and potential for CH4 production by the microbial communities in deep aquifers, we performed chemical and microbiological assays on groundwater and natural gas derived from deep aquifers associated with an accretionary prism and its overlying sedimentary layers. Physicochemical analyses of groundwater and natural gas suggested wide variations in the features of the six deep aquifers tested. On the other hand, a stable carbon isotope analysis of dissolved inorganic carbon in the groundwater and CH4 in the natural gas showed that the deep aquifers contained CH4 of biogenic or mixed biogenic and thermogenic origins. Live/dead staining of microbial cells contained in the groundwater revealed that the cell density of live microbial cells was in the order of 104 to 106? ?cells? ?mL-1, and cell viability ranged between 7.5 and 38.9%. A DNA analysis and anoxic culture of microorganisms in the groundwater suggested a high potential for CH4 production by a syntrophic consortium of hydrogen (H2)-producing fermentative bacteria and H2-utilizing methanogenic archaea. These results suggest that the biodegradation of organic matter in ancient sediments contributes to CH4 production in the deep aquifers associated with this accretionary prism as well as its overlying sedimentary layers.

SUBMITTER: Matsushita M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7104277 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The Potential for CH4 Production by Syntrophic Microbial Communities in Diverse Deep Aquifers Associated with an Accretionary Prism and its Overlying Sedimentary Layers.

Matsushita Makoto M Ishikawa Shugo S Magara Kenta K Sato Yu Y Kimura Hiroyuki H

Microbes and environments 20200101 1

Accretionary prisms are thick masses of sedimentary material scraped from the oceanic crust and piled up at convergent plate boundaries found across large regions of the world. Large amounts of anoxic groundwater and natural gas, mainly methane (CH4), are contained in deep aquifers associated with these accretionary prisms. To identify the subsurface environments and potential for CH4 production by the microbial communities in deep aquifers, we performed chemical and microb ...[more]

PMID: 31932538

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Project description:The groundwater biome is a poorly characterized habitat hypothesized to harbor uniquely diverse bacterial communities; the degree to which these communities differ from associated soils is a central question in environmental microbiology. We characterized the Bacterial community composition in 37 aquifer and 32 surface soil samples across the island of O'ahu, Hawai'i. Several bacterial phyla (Acetothermia, Omnitrophica, Parcubacteria, Peregrinibacteria) relatively abundant in the aquifer samples were rare to absent in the soils. Immense bacterial diversity detected in the deep aquifers indicates that these environments are not as homogenous as expected, but provide various niches and energy sources for wide variety of bacteria. A small proportion of OTUs were widespread in all the basal (0.63%) and all the dike aquifer (0.31%) samples. However, these core bacteria comprised an average of 31.8% (ranging 16.2%-62.0%) and 15.4% (0.1%-31.5%) of all sequences isolated from the basal and dike aquifers respectively. Bacterial community composition correlated significantly with the sodium, sulfate, potassium, total dissolved solids, nitrate, conductivity, and pH in the basal aquifers, while phosphate and bicarbonate levels were also highly important when dike water samples were included in the analyses. This was consistent with high relative abundance of putative chemolithoautoroph taxa in the aquifer communities relative to soils. Targeted molecular and culture-based fecal indicator microbial analyses indicated good water quality of aquifers. The dominance of unique, deeply branching lineages in tropical aquifers emphasizes a large adaptive potential in O'ahu's aquifers; variability among groundwater samples suggests that aquifer habitats are surprisingly variable potentially harboring a variety of chemolithotrophic energy sources. Although parallel analyses of conventional and alternative indicators indicated good groundwater quality, this study calls for groundwater monitoring programs which would consider public as well as ecosystem health.

Dataset Information

The Potential for CH4 Production by Syntrophic Microbial Communities in Diverse Deep Aquifers Associated with an Accretionary Prism and its Overlying Sedimentary Layers.

Publications

The Potential for CH<sub>4</sub> Production by Syntrophic Microbial Communities in Diverse Deep Aquifers Associated with an Accretionary Prism and its Overlying Sedimentary Layers.

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