Noncompetitive microbial diversity patterns in soils: their causes and implications for bioremediation

This funding provided support for over nine years of research on the structure and function of microbial communities in subsurface environments. The overarching goal during these years was to understand the impact of mixed contaminants, particularly heavy metals like uranium, on the structure and function of microbial communities. In addition we sought to identify microbial populations that were actively involved in the reduction of metals because these species of bacteria hold the potential for immobilizing soluble metals moving in subsurface water. Bacterial mediated biochemical reduction of metals like uranium, technetium and chromium, greatly reduces their mobility through complexation and precipitation. Hence, by taking advantage of natural metabolic capabilities of subsurface microbial populations it is possible to bioremediate contaminated subsurface environments with a cost-effective in situ approach. Towards this end we have i.) identified bacterial populations that have thrived under the adverse conditions at the contaminated FRC site, ii.) phylogenetically identified populations that respond to imposed remediation conditions at the FRC, iii.) used metagenomics to begin a reconstruction of the metabolic web in a contaminated subsurface zone, iv.) investigated the metal reducing attributes of a Gram-positive spore forming rod also capable of dechlorination