Microbial community composition and cooccurrence patterns driven by co-contamination of arsenic and antimony in antimony-mining area

Abstract

In the current study, a typical Sb mine was selected to explore the microbial community composition and assembly driven by the cocontamination of As/Sb with geographic distance. Our results showed that environmental parameters, especially pH, TOC, nitrate, total and bioavailable As/Sb contents largely affected the microbial community diversity and composition. The total and bioavailable As/Sb levels were significantly positively correlated with the relative abundance of Zavarzinella, Thermosporothrix and Holophaga, while the pH presented a significant negative correlation with the three genera, potentially implying they are important taxonomic groups in acid-mining soils. The cooccurrence network analysis indicated the environmental stress dominated by pH and As/Sb co-contamination affected the microbial modularity and interaction. Meanwhile, Homogeneous selection (HoS, 26.4–49.3%), and drift and others (DR, 27.1∼40.2%) were the most important assembly processes for soil bacterial, and the importance of HoS decreased and the DR increased with geographic distance to the contamination source respectively. Soil pH, nutrient availability, total and bioavailable As/Sb contents significantly affected the HoS and DR processes. This study provides theoretical support for microbial remediation in metal(loid)-contaminated soils.