Soil microorganisms in the urban ecosystems of the russian subarctic (Murmansk region, Apatity)

A comprehensive study of the quantitative and qualitative parameters of soil microfungi, bacteria and algae communities in the Apatity city, located in the subarctic zone of Russia, was carried out for the first time. Urban soil samples were taken from various landuse zones (residential, recreational) and compared to arable and forest soils. In the residential zone, a decrease in the number of microfungi in the topsoil horizon to 1.1 thous. CFU/g compared to 22.7 thous. CFU/g in forest soil was revealed. In the residential zone, an increase was found in the number of saprotrophic bacteria to 7.8 million cells g-1 and oligotrophic to 10.9 million cells g-1 compared to 2.6 million cells g-1 and 1.8 million cells g-1 respectively in forest soils. In the recreational zone, the number of soil microorganisms was similar to that in the forest. A decrease in the species diversity of microfungi in the soil of the residential zone and an increase in the diversity of soil algae were revealed. Among the dominant species of fungi in urban soils, atypical species, including pathogenic ones for humans (Penicillium dierckxii, Stachybotris echinatus, Fusarium sp.), were found. In the algal community, diatoms, yellow-green algae, and cyanobacteria appeared in urban soils in comparison with forest soil. As a result of changes in the quantitative and qualitative indicators of soil microbial communities, a decrease in the enzymatic activity of soils has been noted. This may indicate a weakening of the ecosystem functions of urban soils and an increase in the degree of toxicity for living organisms and humans

Development And Optimization Of Biological Treatment Of Quarry Waters From Mineral Nitrogen In The Subarctic

The new concept of bioremediation  of anthropogenic water bodies and quarry wastewaters treatment by phytoextraction and phytotransformation in the Subarctic conditions is presented.  This technology is based on transformating  the man-caused water reservoirs  into nature-like  marsh ecosystems.  At the first stage,  a new patented method for advanced waste treatment using floating bioplate was developed and implemented. After implementing  the bioplate, the concentration of ammonium ions in water decreased by 53-90%, nitrate nitrogen reduced by 15-20%. At the second stage, the floating bioplate technology was modified into the highly efficient purificating marsh ecosystem, which allowed to cover the waterbody  territory to the greatest possible extent. The technology is based on the creation of phytomats enabling in the accelerated mode to form plant blocks of three different types. They are aimed both at local grassing down, and at swamping deep and shallow areas of sediment ponds. In forming phytomats, two soil substitutional substrates (thermovermiculite  and wood sawdust) and regionally-optimized  assortment of 24 plant species are used. The proposed technology does not require energy, chemicals and soil components which are scarce in the region. The predominance of natural ecosystem  processes in the formed phytocenoses allows to achieve maximum efficiency, and the use of available materials contributes to minimizing the costs of creating and maintaining the system. The introduction of this technology and formation of the artificial phytocenosis  with the area of about 30% of the man-caused  reservoirs territory made it possible to increase the efficiency of wastewater treating from mineral nitrogen compounds  by 22%

Microbial Communities of Seawater and Coastal Soil of Russian Arctic Region and Their Potential for Bioremediation from Hydrocarbon Pollutants

The development of Arctic regions leads to pollution of marine and coastal environments with oil and petroleum products. The purpose of this work was to determine the diversity of microbial communities in seawater, as well as in littoral and coastal soil, and the potential ability of their members to degrade hydrocarbons degradation and to isolate oil-degrading bacteria. Using high-throughput sequencing of the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene, the dominance of bacteria in polar communities was shown, the proportion of archaea did not exceed 2% (of the total number of sequences in the libraries). Archaea inhabiting the seawater belonged to the genera Nitrosopumilus and Nitrosoarchaeum and to the Nitrososphaeraceae family. In the polluted samples, members of the Gammaproteobacteria, Alphaproteobacteria, and Actinomycetes classes predominated; bacteria of the classes Bacteroidia, Clostridia, Acidimicrobiia, Planctomycetia, and Deltaproteobacteria were less represented. Using the iVikodak program and KEGG database, the potential functional characteristics of the studied prokaryotic communities were predicted. Bacteria were potentially involved in nitrogen and sulfur cycles, in degradation of benzoate, terephthalate, fatty acids, and alkanes. A total of 19 strains of bacteria of the genera Pseudomonas, Aeromonas, Oceanisphaera, Shewanella, Paeniglutamicibacter, and Rhodococcus were isolated from the studied samples. Among them were psychrotolerant and psychrophilic bacteria growing in seawater and utilizing crude oil, diesel fuel, and motor oils. The data obtained suggest that the studied microbial communities could participate in the removal of hydrocarbons from arctic seawater and coastal soils and suggested the possibility of the application of the isolates for the bioaugmentation of oil-contaminated polar environments