At the mouth of the Rio Tinto in southwestern Spain, acidic river water—polluted with heavy metals from ore mining and mineral weathering—mixes with the salt water of the Atlantic Ocean. Here, microorganisms that love such extreme conditions form a unique community. They live in water as acidic as vinegar, are resistant to high salinity, and some also cope very well with high levels of toxic metals. This biocoenosis was discovered by a research team headed by Professor Andreas Kappler and Assistant Professor Sara Kleindienst from the Center for Applied Geosciences at the University of Tübingen. The researchers investigated where the microorganisms get energy for their metabolism under the extreme conditions, and what influence the microbes have on the depositing or dispersion of heavy metals in the Rio Tinto estuary. The study has been published in the latest edition of Applied and Environmental Microbiology.
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Source: Phys.org