| The reduction of selenium (Se) by microbes is controlled by oxygen (O 2)-availability within mixed deposits of shale, chert, and mudstone mined from the Phosphoria Formation in S.E. Idaho. Waste rock and groundwater from backfilled mine pits, which have been studied using geochemical, microbial cultivation, and molecular methods, host native populations of selenate-(SeO 42-) and selenite-(SeO32-) reducing bacteria that are highly similar to the genera Dechloromonas, Stenotrophomonas, Anaeromyxobacter, and Ralstonia. These bacteria rapidly reduced more than 95% of soluble SeO4 2- concentrations. Reduction occurred within a consortium of slow growing, cold-tolerant, hydrocarbon-degrading, and nitrate-(NO3 -), iron-(Fe3+), and manganese-(Mn4+) reducing bacteria, including the genera Polaromonas and Rhodoferax, which appeared to use the naturally-occurring hydrocarbon present in the rock. Most-probable number estimates of SeO 42--reducers were highest in saturated sediments and in unsaturated shale, and were very low in unsaturated chert and mudstone. Selenium reduction was studied in microaerophilic, saturated native chert, shale, and mixed run-of-mine sediments inoculated with live groundwater cultures, with sampling and analysis of total Se, Fe, Mn; Se speciation; NO3 - and sulfate (SO42-); dissolved organic carbon and total nitrogen(N); and mineralogy. Following an O2- and N-dependent lag, SeO42- was reduced within 100 hours under saturated, suboxic conditions at rates that varied depending on lithotype and temperature. The microbial community shifted during reduction as well, from phylotypes associated with the Fe-reducing Rhodoferax and HC-degrading Sphingomonas and SeO4 2--reducing Dechloromonas genera to include members of the SeO32-reducing genus Ralstonia. A unique biogeochemical Se reduction pathway was suggested in chert experiments, where Se reduction proceeded more rapidly and produced SeO3 2- and elemental Se products, relative to the shale, wherein reduction was slower and produced more reduced selenide minerals. These experiments offer insight into the results of in situ monitoring in backfill at multiple locations in S.E. Idaho, and potentially explain differences in Se solubility at these locations. Strategic management of rock and water in constructed mine waste facilities to limit O2 recharge can thus promote SeO42- reduction by communities of indigenous organisms using available carbon and other electron donors. This offers a sustainable, design-based approach to natural attenuation of Se in mined rock. |
