Changes in groundwater bacterial community during cyclic groundwater-table variations
Xuefeng Xia
Engineering Research Center of Groundwater Pollution Control and Remediation of Ministry of Education, College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
Beijing Key Laboratory of Urban Hydrological Cycle and Sponge City Technology, College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
Search for more papers by this authorDouglas Ian Stewart
School of Civil Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
Search for more papers by this authorLirong Cheng
Engineering Research Center of Groundwater Pollution Control and Remediation of Ministry of Education, College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
Beijing Key Laboratory of Urban Hydrological Cycle and Sponge City Technology, College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
Search for more papers by this authorKai Wang
Engineering Research Center of Groundwater Pollution Control and Remediation of Ministry of Education, College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
Beijing Key Laboratory of Urban Hydrological Cycle and Sponge City Technology, College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
Search for more papers by this authorJing Li
Shandong Refresher Env. Eng. & Consulting, Jinan, China
Search for more papers by this authorDan Zhang
Beijing Municipal Research Institute of Environmental Protection, Beijing Key Laboratory for Risk Modeling and Remediation of Contaminated Sites, Beijing, China
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Aizhong Ding
Engineering Research Center of Groundwater Pollution Control and Remediation of Ministry of Education, College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
Beijing Key Laboratory of Urban Hydrological Cycle and Sponge City Technology, College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
Correspondence
Aizhong Ding. Engineering Research Center of Groundwater Pollution Control and Remediation of Ministry of Education, College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, 12#, Xueyuannan Road, Haidian District, 100875 Beijing, PR China.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorXuefeng Xia
Engineering Research Center of Groundwater Pollution Control and Remediation of Ministry of Education, College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
Beijing Key Laboratory of Urban Hydrological Cycle and Sponge City Technology, College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
Search for more papers by this authorDouglas Ian Stewart
School of Civil Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
Search for more papers by this authorLirong Cheng
Engineering Research Center of Groundwater Pollution Control and Remediation of Ministry of Education, College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
Beijing Key Laboratory of Urban Hydrological Cycle and Sponge City Technology, College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
Search for more papers by this authorKai Wang
Engineering Research Center of Groundwater Pollution Control and Remediation of Ministry of Education, College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
Beijing Key Laboratory of Urban Hydrological Cycle and Sponge City Technology, College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
Search for more papers by this authorJing Li
Shandong Refresher Env. Eng. & Consulting, Jinan, China
Search for more papers by this authorDan Zhang
Beijing Municipal Research Institute of Environmental Protection, Beijing Key Laboratory for Risk Modeling and Remediation of Contaminated Sites, Beijing, China
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Aizhong Ding
Engineering Research Center of Groundwater Pollution Control and Remediation of Ministry of Education, College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
Beijing Key Laboratory of Urban Hydrological Cycle and Sponge City Technology, College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
Correspondence
Aizhong Ding. Engineering Research Center of Groundwater Pollution Control and Remediation of Ministry of Education, College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, 12#, Xueyuannan Road, Haidian District, 100875 Beijing, PR China.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorFunding information: National Key R & D Program of China, Grant/Award Number: 2018YFC1800905; National Natural Science Foundation of China, Grant/Award Number: 41672227
Abstract
Column experiments containing an aquifer sand were subjected to static and oscillating water tables to investigate the impact of natural fluctuations and rainfall infiltration on the groundwater bacterial community just below the phreatic surface, and its association with the geochemistry. Once the columns were established, the continuously saturated zone was anoxic in all three columns. The rate of soil organic matter (SOM) mineralization was higher when the water table varied cyclically than when it was static due to the greater availability of NO3− and SO42−. Natural fluctuations in the water table resulted in a similar NO3− concentration to that observed with a static water table but the cyclic wetting of the intermittently saturated zone resulted in a higher SO42− concentration. Rainfall infiltration induced cyclic water-table variations resulted in a higher NO3− concentration than those in the other two columns, and a SO42− concentration intermediate between those columns. As rainwater infiltration resulted in slow downward displacement of the groundwater, it is inferred that NO3− and SO42− were being mobilized from the vadose zone. NO3− was mainly released by SOM mineralization (which was enhanced by the infiltration of oxygenated rainwater), but the larger amount of SO42− release required a second mechanism (possibly desorption). Different groundwater bacterial communities evolved from initially similar populations due to the different groundwater histories.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors declare no potential conflict of interest.
Open Research
DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT
The data used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.
Supporting Information
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Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.
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