ABSTRACT
This data article provides detailed explanation and data on CO2/water coreflooding experiments performed on nine sandstone rock cores. Refer to the research article "Predicting CO2 Residual Trapping Ability Based on Experimental Petrophysical Properties for Different Sandstone Types" [1] for data interpretation. The reader can expect to find experimental conditions including temperature, pressure, fluid pair types, as well as flow rates. Furthermore, the raw CT images and the processed three-dimensional (3D) voxel-level porosity, permeability, and CO2 saturation maps for each of the nine sandstone samples are also supplied.
ABSTRACT
In aquifers subject to saline water intrusion, the mixing zone between freshwater and saltwater displays strong physico-chemical gradients. Although the microbial component of these specific environments has been largely disregarded, the contribution of micro-organisms to biogeochemical reactions impacting water geochemistry has previously been conjectured. The objective of this study was to characterize and compare bacterial community diversity and composition along a vertical saline gradient in a carbonate coastal aquifer using high throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA genes. At different depths of the mixing zone, stable geochemical and hydrological conditions were associated with autochthonous bacterial communities harboring clearly distinct structures. Diversity pattern did not follow the salinity gradient, although multivariate analysis indicated that salinity was one of the major drivers of bacterial community composition, with organic carbon, pH and CO2 partial pressure. Correlation analyses between the relative abundance of bacterial taxa and geochemical parameters suggested that rare taxa may contribute to biogeochemical processes taking place at the interface between freshwater and saltwater. Bacterial respiration or alternative metabolisms such as sulfide oxidation or organic acids production may be responsible for the acidification and the resulting induced calcite dissolution observed at a specific depth of the mixing zone.