Methanogenic communities and methane emissions from enrichments of Brazilian Amazonia soils under land-use change.

Amazonian forest conversion into agricultural and livestock areas is considered one of the activities that contribute most to the emission of greenhouse gases, including methane. Biogenic methane production is mainly performed by methanogenic Archaea, which underscores the importance of understanding the drivers shaping microbial communities involved in the methane cycling and changes in methane metabolism. Here, we aimed to investigate the composition and structure of bacterial and archaeal communities in tropical soils in response to land-use changes, emphasizing the methanogenic communities. We collected soil samples from primary forest, pasture, and secondary forest of the Amazonian region and used a strategy based on the enrichment of the methanogenic community with three different methanogenic substrates followed by measurements of methane emission, quantification of mcrA gene copies by qPCR, and total 16 S rRNA gene sequencing (metataxonomics). We observed variations in the structure of bacterial and archaeal communities of soils under different uses. The richness of methanogenic communities was higher in pasture than forest soils and this richness remained during the incubation period, and as a consequence, the enrichment induced earlier methane emission in pastures-derived samples. Furthermore, pastures enrichments exhibited methanogenic archaea networks more complex than primary and secondary forests. In conclusion, pastures harbor a richer and more responsive methanogenic community than forest samples, suggesting that conversion of forest areas to pasture may boost methane emission.

Thermally-induced changes in tropical soils properties and potential implications to sequential nature-based solutions.

Some remediation techniques, such as thermal remediation, can significantly change the soil properties. These changes can be beneficial or detrimental to the sequential application of Nature-based Solutions. This work evaluated the effects of thermal remediation on the properties of two tropical soils (Technosol and Oxisol), and discuss how these changes might impact both biotic and abiotic degradation processes. Bench tests using disturbed samples were performed under oxic and anoxic conditions, whereas 3D physical models were used to simulate the heat distribution along undisturbed samples. The changes in soils texture, density, hydraulic conductivity, iron concentration, mineralogy and microbiota were evaluated. The properties of Oxisol were more affected than those of Technosol due to the higher levels in Fe(III), organic carbon and finer texture. When heated in the range of 120 to 300 °C under oxic and anoxic conditions, the Fe(II) content and the magnetism intensity increased in Oxisol, probably due to the formation of magnetite. Under oxic conditions, the burning of Oxisol organic matter promoted an anoxic atmosphere, favoring the formation of Fe(II). However, the continuous increase of the temperature (>300 °C) lead to the decrease of Fe(II) due to the transformation of magnetite to maghemite, and then to hematite. The heating process also promoted some minerals decomposition and cementation of the clay fraction, increasing the soil texture. Bacterial populations were impacted, but showed ability to recover at 60 °C. However, above 100 °C no culturable cells were recovered and at temperatures above 270 °C soil sterilization occurred. The changes observed, especially in Oxisol samples, indicated that mild heating (between 120 and 240 °C), in turn, can increase the potential for abiotic degradation of some contaminants, such as chlorinated solvents. Therefore, heating conditions up to 240 °C during thermal remediation can be defined as to promote beneficial changes in soil properties, increasing its potential for natural attenuation by abiotic processes even when the microbiota is affected, and improving its sustainability.

Methanotrophic Community Detected by DNA-SIP at Bertioga's Mangrove Area, Southeast Brazil.

Methanotrophic bacteria can use methane as sole carbon and energy source. Its importance in the environment is related to the mitigation of methane emissions from soil and water to the atmosphere. Brazilian mangroves are highly productive, have potential to methane production, and it is inferred that methanotrophic community is of great importance for this ecosystem. The scope of this study was to investigate the functional and taxonomic diversity of methanotrophic bacteria present in the anthropogenic impacted sediments from Bertioga´s mangrove (SP, Brazil). Sediment sample was cultivated with methane and the microbiota actively involved in methane oxidation was identified by DNA-based stable isotope probing (DNA-SIP) using methane as a labeled substrate. After 4 days (96 h) of incubation and consumption of 0.7 mmol of methane, the most active microorganisms were related to methanotrophs Methylomonas and Methylobacter as well as to methylotrophic Methylotenera, indicating a possible association of these bacterial groups within a methane-derived food chain in the Bertioga mangrove. The abundance of genera Methylomonas, able to couple methane oxidation to nitrate reduction, may indicate that under low dissolved oxygen tensions, some aerobic methanotrophs could shift to intraerobic methane oxidation to avoid oxygen starvation.

Bacterial diversity in deep-sea sediments under influence of asphalt seep at the São Paulo Plateau.

Here we investigated the diversity of bacterial communities from deep-sea surface sediments under influence of asphalt seeps at the Sao Paulo Plateau using next-generation sequencing method. Sampling was performed at North São Paulo Plateau using the human occupied vehicle Shinkai 6500 and her support vessel Yokosuka. The microbial diversity was studied at two surficial sediment layers (0-1 and 1-4 cm) of five samples collected in cores in water depths ranging from 2456 to 2728 m. Bacterial communities were studied through sequencing of 16S rRNA gene on the Ion Torrent platform and clustered in operational taxonomic units. We observed high diversity of bacterial sediment communities as previously described by other studies. When we considered community composition, the most abundant classes were Alphaproteobacteria (27.7%), Acidimicrobiia (20%), Gammaproteobacteria (11.3%) and Deltaproteobacteria (6.6%). Most abundant OTUs at family level were from two uncultured bacteria from Actinomarinales (5.95%) and Kiloniellaceae (3.17%). The unexpected high abundance of Alphaproteobacteria and Acidimicrobiia in our deep-sea microbial communities may be related to the presence of asphalt seep at North São Paulo Plateau, since these bacterial classes contain bacteria that possess the capability of metabolizing hydrocarbon compounds.

Draft Genome Sequence of Haloferax sp. Strain ATB1, Isolated from a Semi-Arid Region in the Brazilian Caatinga.

Organisms in the Haloferax genus are extreme halophiles that grow in environments with pH values between 4 and 12, and temperatures between 0°C and 60°C. In the present study, a draft of the first Haloferax sp. strain ATB1 genome isolated from the region of Cariri (in Paraíba State, Brazil) is presented.