Mineral Sources and Vertical Distribution of Nutrients in Extremely Acidic Pit Lakes: Impact on Microbial Ecology

Nutrient cycling has barely been studied in acidic environments and may have an important influence on the evolution of the microbial communities. In this research, we studied nutrient sources and fluxes in acidic metal-mine pit lakes to evaluate their relationship with the lakes’ microbial ecology. Nutrient concentrations (including phosphorus, nitrogen, and dissolved inorganic carbon) increase with depth in all the studied pit lakes. Phosphorus comes mainly from the leaching of the host rock and is rapidly scavenged from the aqueous phase in the oxygenic and Fe(III)-rich mixolimnion due to adsorption on ferric precipitates (schwertmannite, jarosite), which leads to an important P-limitation in the photic zone. Below the chemocline, however, the sum of phosphorus inputs (e.g., settling of algal biomass, desorption from the ferric compounds, microbial reduction of Fe(III)-sediments) sharply increases the concentration of this element in the anoxic monimolimnion. Nitrogen is very scarce in the host rocks, and only a limited input occurs via atmospheric deposition followed by N-uptake by algae, N-fixation by acidophilic microorganisms, sedimentation, and organic matter degradation in the sediments. The latter process releases ammonium to the anoxic monimolimnion and allows some nitrogen cycling in the chemocline. Soluble SiO2 in the mixolimnion is abundant and does not represent a limiting nutrient for diatom growth. Differences in phytoplankton biomass and extent of bacterial sulfate reduction between relatively unproductive lakes (San Telmo) and the more fertile lakes (Cueva de la Mora) are likely caused by a P-limitation in the former due to the abundance of ferric iron colloids in the water column. Our results suggest that phosphorus amendment in the photic zone could be an efficient method to indirectly increase acidity-consuming and metal-sequestering bacterial metabolisms in these lakes.