Leaching of pollutant metals (Pb, Zn) from abandoned mine tailings: A multicomponent reactive transport model of a pilot-scale experiment.

Mine tailing deposits pose a global problem, as they may contain metal contaminants in various geochemical forms and are likely to be leached from the surface into the underlying groundwater, which can result in health and/or environmental risks. Unfortunately, little is currently known regarding the water flow and mass balance related to leaching in the vadose zone as these factors are still difficult to measure at the field scale. A pilot-scale experiment was run in a 1 m instrumented column for 6 months to address this issue.

Temporal evolution of surface and sub-surface geochemistry and microbial communities of Pb-rich mine tailings during phytostabilization: A one-year pilot-scale study.

Old mine waste repositories can present health and/or environmental issues linked to their erosion, inducing dissemination of metals and metalloids in air and water that can be attenuated through phytostabilization. Here, the effect of this widespread phytomanagement option on the biogeochemistry of a Pb-rich mine waste was evaluated with a laboratory pilot-scale experiment giving access to the non-saturated and saturated zones below the rhizosphere compartment. Amendment of the tailings surface with biochar, manure and iron-oxide-rich ochre promoted growth of the seeded Agrostis capillaris plants.

Resistance and Resilience of Soil Nitrogen Cycling to Drought and Heat Stress in Rehabilitated Urban Soils.

In the context of climate change and biodiversity loss, rehabilitation of degraded urban soils is a means of limiting artificialization of terrestrial ecosystems and preventing further degradation of soils. Ecological rehabilitation approaches are available to reinitiate soil functions and enhance plant development. However, little is known about the long-term stability of rehabilitated soils in terms of soil functions when further natural or anthropogenic perturbations occur.

Microbial community response to environmental changes in a technosol historically contaminated by the burning of chemical ammunitions.

The burning of chemical weapons in the 1926-1928 period produced polluted technosols with elevated levels of arsenic, zinc, lead and copper. During an eight-month mesocosm experiment, these soils were submitted to two controlled environmental changes, namely the alternation of dry and water-saturated conditions and the addition of fragmented organic forest litter to the surface soil. We investigated, by sequencing the gene coding 16S rRNA and 18S rRNA, (1) the structure of the prokaryotic and eukaryotic community in this polluted technosol and (2) their response to the simulated environmental changes, in the four distinct layers of the mesocosm.

Mobility of Pb, Zn, Ba, As and Cd toward soil pore water and plants (willow and ryegrass) from a mine soil amended with biochar.

Mine soils often contain metal(loid)s that may lead to serious environmental problems. Phytoremediation, consisting in covering the soil with specific plants with the possible addition of amendments, represents an interesting way of enhancing the quality of mine soils by retaining contaminants and reducing soil erosion. In order to study the effect of an assisted phytoremediation (with willow and ryegrass) on the properties of soil pore water (SPW), we investigated the impact of amendment with biochar (BC) combined with the planting of willow and ryegrass on the behavior of several metal(loid)s (Pb, Zn, Ba, As, and Cd) in a mine soil.

Influence of environmental changes on the biogeochemistry of arsenic in a soil polluted by the destruction of chemical weapons: A mesocosm study.

Thermal destruction of chemical munitions from World War I led to the formation of a heavily contaminated residue that contains an unexpected mineral association in which a microbial As transformation has been observed. A mesocosm study was conducted to assess the impact of water saturation episodes and input of bioavailable organic matter (OM) on pollutant behavior in relation to biogeochemical parameters. Over a period of about eight (8) months, the contaminated soil was subjected to cycles of dry and wet periods corresponding to water table level variations.

Effect of water table variations and input of natural organic matter on the cycles of C and N, and mobility of As, Zn and Cu from a soil impacted by the burning of chemical warfare agents: A mesocosm study.

A mesocosm study was conducted to assess the impact of water saturation episodes and of the input of bioavailable organic matter on the biogeochemical cycles of C and N, and on the behavior of metal(loid)s in a soil highly contaminated by the destruction of arsenical shells. An instrumented mesocosm was filled with contaminated soil taken from the "Place-à-Gaz" site. Four cycles of dry and wet periods of about one month were simulated for 276days.

Influence of vegetation on the in situ bacterial community and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) degraders in aged PAH-contaminated or thermal-desorption-treated soil.

The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) contamination, bacterial community, and PAH-degrading bacteria were monitored in aged PAH-contaminated soil (Neuves-Maisons [NM] soil; with a mean of 1,915 mg of 16 PAHs.kg(-1) of soil dry weight) and in the same soil previously treated by thermal desorption (TD soil; with a mean of 106 mg of 16 PAHs.kg(-1) of soil dry weight).

Real-Time PCR quantification of PAH-ring hydroxylating dioxygenase (PAH-RHDalpha) genes from Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria in soil and sediment samples.

Real-Time PCR based assays were developed to quantify Gram positive (GP) and Gram negative (GN) bacterial populations that are capable of degrading the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) in soil and sediment samples with contrasting contamination levels. These specific and sensitive Real-Time PCR assays were based on the quantification of the copy number of the gene that encodes the alpha subunit of the PAH-ring hydroxylating dioxygenases (PAH-RHDalpha), involved in the initial step of the aerobic metabolism of PAH. The PAH-RHDalpha-GP primer set was designed against the different allele types present in the data base (narAa, phdA/pdoA2, nidA/pdoA1, nidA3/fadA1) common to the Gram positive PAH degraders such as Rhodococcus, Mycobacterium, Nocardioides and Terrabacter strains.