TY - JOUR
T1 - Fe biogeochemistry in reclaimed acid mine drainage precipitates - Implications for phytoremediation
AU - Rojas, Claudia
AU - Martínez, Carmen Enid
AU - Bruns, Mary Ann
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Fulbright Program and the Chilean Commission for Science and Technology (CONICYT) , through a Fulbright Foreign Graduate Student Fellowship. We thank landowner Alan Larson, who permitted site access. We acknowledge the College of Agricultural Sciences and the Graduate School at the Pennsylvania State University for support of CR through the McKenna and Graduate Competitive Grant programs. We also thank our anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript.
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - At a 50-year-old coal mine drainage barrens in central Pennsylvania, USA, we evaluated the biogeochemistry of acidic, Fe(III)oxy(hydr)oxide precipitates in reclaimed plots and compared them to untreated precipitates in control areas. Reclaimed plots supported successional vegetation that became established after a one-time compost and lime treatment in 2006, while control plots supported biological crusts. Precipitates were sampled from moist yet unsaturated surface layers in an area with lateral subsurface flow of mine drainage above a fragipan. Fe(II) concentrations were three- to five-fold higher in reclaimed than control precipitates. Organically bound Fe and amorphous iron oxides, as fractions of total Fe, were also higher in reclaimed than control precipitates. Estimates of Fe-reducing and Fe-oxidizing bacteria were four- to tenfold higher in root-adherent than both types of control precipitates. By scaling up measurements from experimental plots, total Fe losses during the 5-yr following reclamation were estimated at 45 t Fe ha-1 yr-1.
AB - At a 50-year-old coal mine drainage barrens in central Pennsylvania, USA, we evaluated the biogeochemistry of acidic, Fe(III)oxy(hydr)oxide precipitates in reclaimed plots and compared them to untreated precipitates in control areas. Reclaimed plots supported successional vegetation that became established after a one-time compost and lime treatment in 2006, while control plots supported biological crusts. Precipitates were sampled from moist yet unsaturated surface layers in an area with lateral subsurface flow of mine drainage above a fragipan. Fe(II) concentrations were three- to five-fold higher in reclaimed than control precipitates. Organically bound Fe and amorphous iron oxides, as fractions of total Fe, were also higher in reclaimed than control precipitates. Estimates of Fe-reducing and Fe-oxidizing bacteria were four- to tenfold higher in root-adherent than both types of control precipitates. By scaling up measurements from experimental plots, total Fe losses during the 5-yr following reclamation were estimated at 45 t Fe ha-1 yr-1.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84884663809&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84884663809&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.envpol.2013.08.033
DO - 10.1016/j.envpol.2013.08.033
M3 - Article
C2 - 24063953
AN - SCOPUS:84884663809
SN - 0269-7491
VL - 184
SP - 231
EP - 237
JO - Environmental Pollution
JF - Environmental Pollution
ER -