Jenine McCutcheon

A Greenhouse-Scale Photosynthetic Microbial Bioreactor for Carbon Sequestration in Magnesium Carbonate Minerals

A cyanobacteria dominated consortium collected from an alkaline wetland located near Atlin, British Columbia, Canada accelerated the precipitation of platy hydromagnesite [Mg5(CO3)4(OH)2·4H2O] in a linear flow-through experimental model wetland. The concentration of magnesium decreased rapidly within 2 m of the inflow point of the 10-m-long (∼1.5 m(2)) bioreactor. The change in water chemistry was monitored over two months along the length of the channel. Carbonate mineralization was associated with extra-cellular polymeric substances in the nutrient-rich upstream portion of the bioreactor, while the lower part of the system, which lacked essential nutrients, did not exhibit any hydromagnesite precipitation. A mass balance calculation using the water chemistry data produced a carbon sequestration rate of 33.34 t of C/ha per year. Amendment of the nutrient deficiency would intuitively allow for increased carbonation activity. Optimization of this process will have application as a sustainable mining practice by mediating magnesium carbonate precipitation in ultramafic mine tailings storage facilities.

Microbially Accelerated Carbonate Mineral Precipitation as a Strategy for in Situ Carbon Sequestration and Rehabilitation of Asbestos Mine Sites

A microbially accelerated process for the precipitation of carbonate minerals was implemented in a sample of serpentinite mine tailings collected from the abandoned Woodsreef Asbestos Mine in New South Wales, Australia as a strategy to sequester atmospheric CO2 while also stabilizing the tailings. Tailings were leached using sulfuric acid in reaction columns and subsequently inoculated with an alkalinity-generating cyanobacteria-dominated microbial consortium that was enriched from pit waters at the Woodsreef Mine. Leaching conditions that dissolved 14% of the magnesium from the serpentinite tailings while maintaining circumneutral pH (1800 ppm, pH 6.3) were employed in the experiment. The mineralogy, water chemistry, and microbial colonization of the columns were characterized following the experiment. Micro-X-ray diffraction was used to identify carbonate precipitates as dypingite [Mg5(CO3)4(OH)2·5H2O] and hydromagnesite [Mg5(CO3)4(OH)2·4H2O] with minor nesquehonite (MgCO3·3H2O). Scanning electron microscopy revealed that carbonate mineral precipitates form directly on the filamentous cyanobacteria. These findings demonstrate the ability of these organisms to generate localized supersaturating microenvironments of high concentrations of adsorbed magnesium and photosynthetically generated carbonate ions while also acting as nucleation sites for carbonate precipitation. This study is the first step toward implementing in situ carbon sequestration in serpentinite mine tailings via microbial carbonate precipitation reactions.

The diversity of ice algal communities on the Greenland Ice Sheet as revealed by oligotyping

The Arctic is being disproportionally affected by climate change compared with other geographic locations, and is currently experiencing unprecedented melt rates. The Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) can be regarded as the largest supraglacial ecosystem on Earth, and ice algae are the dominant primary producers on bare ice surfaces throughout the course of a melt season. Ice-algal-derived pigments cause a darkening of the ice surface, which in turn decreases albedo and increases melt rates. The important role of ice algae in changing melt rates has only recently been recognized, and we currently know little about their community compositions and functions. Here, we present the first analysis of ice algal communities across a 100 km transect on the GrIS by high-throughput sequencing and subsequent oligotyping of the most abundant taxa. Our data reveal an extremely low algal diversity with Ancylonema nordenskiöldii and a Mesotaenium species being by far the dominant taxa at all sites. We employed an oligotyping approach and revealed a hidden diversity not detectable by conventional clustering of operational taxonomic units and taxonomic classification. Oligotypes of the dominant taxa exhibit a site-specific distribution, which may be linked to differences in temperatures and subsequently the extent of the melting. Our results help to better understand the distribution patterns of ice algal communities that play a crucial role in the GrIS ecosystem.