TY - JOUR A1 - Noah, Mareike A1 - Lappe, Michael A1 - Schneider, Beate A1 - Vieth-Hillebrand, Andrea A1 - Wilkes, Heinz A1 - Kallmeyer, Jens T1 - Tracing biogeochemical and microbial variability over a complete oil sand mining and recultivation process JF - The science of the total environment : an international journal for scientific research into the environment and its relationship with man N2 - Recultivation of disturbed oil sand mining areas is an issue of increasing importance. Nevertheless only little is known about the fate of organic matter, cell abundances and microbial community structures during oil sand processing, tailings management and initial soil development on reclamation sites. Thus the focus of this work is on biogeochemical changes of mined oil sands through the entire process chain until its use as substratum for newly developing soils on reclamation sites. Therefore, oil sand, mature fine tailings (MFTs) from tailings ponds and drying cells and tailings sand covered with peat-mineral mix (PMM) as part of land reclamation were analyzed. The sample set was selected to address the question whether changes in the above-mentioned biogeochemical parameters can be related to oil sand processing or biological processes and how these changes influence microbial activities and soil development. GC-MS analyses of oil-derived biomarkers reveal that these compounds remain unaffected by oil sand processing and biological activity. In contrast, changes in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) abundance and pattern can be observed along the process chain. Especially naphthalenes, phenanthrenes and chrysenes are altered or absent on reclamation sites, Furthermore, root-bearing horizons on reclamation sites exhibit cell abundances at least ten times higher (10(8) to 10(9) cells g(-1)) than in oil sand and MFF samples (10(7) cells g(-1)) and show a higher diversity in their microbial community structure. Nitrate in the pore water and roots derived from the PMM seem to be the most important stimulants for microbial growth. The combined data show that the observed compositional changes are mostly related to biological activity and the addition of exogenous organic components (PMM), whereas oil extraction, tailings dewatering and compaction do not have significant influences on the evaluated compounds. Microbial community composition remains relatively stable through the entire process chain. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. KW - Oil sands KW - Tailings ponds KW - Reclamation KW - PAN KW - Biomarker KW - Microbial community analysis Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.08.020 SN - 0048-9697 SN - 1879-1026 VL - 499 SP - 297 EP - 310 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lappe, Michael A1 - Kallmeyer, Jens T1 - A cell extraction method for oily sediments JF - Frontiers in microbiology N2 - Hydrocarbons can be found in many different habitats and represent an important carbon source for microbes. As fossil fuels, they are also an important economical resource and through natural seepage or accidental release they can be major pollutants. DNA-specific stains and molecular probes bind to hydrocarbons, causing massive background fluorescence, thereby hampering cell enumeration. The cell extraction procedure of Kallmeyer et al. (2008) separates the cells from the sediment matrix. In principle, this technique can also be used to separate cells from oily sediments, but it was not originally optimized for this application. Here we present a modified extraction method in which the hydrocarbons are removed prior to cell extraction. Due to the reduced background fluorescence the microscopic image becomes clearer, making cell identification, and enumeration much easier. Consequently, the resulting cell counts from oily samples treated according to our new protocol are significantly higher than those treated according to Kallmeyer et al. (2008). We tested different amounts of a variety of solvents for their ability to remove hydrocarbons and found that n-hexane and in samples containing more mature oils methanol, delivered the best results. However, as solvents also tend to lyse cells, it was important to find the optimum solvent to sample ratio, at which hydrocarbon extraction is maximized and cell lysis minimized. A volumetric ratio of 1:2-1:5 between a formalin-fixed sediment slurry and solvent delivered highest cell counts. Extraction efficiency was around 30-50% and was checked on both oily samples spiked with known amounts of E. coli cells and oil-free samples amended with fresh and biodegraded oil. The method provided reproducible results on samples containing very different kinds of oils with regard to their degree of biodegradation. For strongly biodegraded oil MeOH turned out to be the most appropriate solvent, whereas for less biodegraded samples n-hexane delivered best results. KW - cell enumeration KW - hydrocarbons KW - cell separation KW - subsurface microbiology Y1 - 2011 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2011.00233 SN - 1664-302X VL - 2 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER -