Experimental study on reduction of U (Ⅵ) by an anaerobic bacterium, Shewanella putrefaciens: Application to sandstone-hosted interlayer oxidation-zone type uranium deposits, China

An experimental study on reduction of U (Ⅵ) by anaerobic bacteria, Shewane//a putrefaciens, is first reported here in China. The experimental conditions were: 35℃ and pH =7.0-7.4, corresponding to a physicochemical environments in which the sandstone-hosted interlayer oxidation-zone type uranium deposit formed in Northwest China's Xinjiang. Bacteria adopted in the present experiment, Shewanella putrefaciens, occur extensively in natural environment. Our study shows that nano-crystal precipitates of uraninite quickly occurred on the surface of the cells within one week. It was found that the pitchblende was characterized by a random arrangement of uraninite nanocrystals (2-4 nm) in it, significantly different from natural pitchblende in which uraninite nanocrystals are arranged in order. Finally, a possible mechanism of uranium biomineralization by microorganisms in the deposits is discussed. Our investigation may supply a technical train of thoughts for bioremediation of nuclear-contaminated water environments and for underground dissolving extraction of the sandstone-hosted uranium ores.     

Production of a molybdophore during metal-targeted dissolution of silicates by soil bacteria

Although many bioessential metals are scarce in natural water and rock systems, microbial secretion of high-affinity ligands for metal extraction from solid phases has only been documented for Fe. However, we have discovered that Mo is extracted from a silicate by a high-affinity ligand (a possible “molybdophore”) secreted by an N₂-fixing soil bacterium. The putative molybdophore, aminochelin, is secreted as a siderophore under Fe-depleted conditions, but is also secreted under Fe-sufficient, Mo-depleted conditions. Presumably, molybdophore production facilitates uptake of Mo for use in Mo enzymes. In contrast, an Fe-requiring soil bacterium without a special Mo requirement only enhances the release of Fe from the silicate. Fractionation of Mo stable isotopes during uptake to cells may provide a “fingerprint” for the importance of chelating ligands in such systems. Many such metal-specific ligands secreted by prokaryotes for extraction of bioessential metals, their effects on Earth materials, and their possible utility in the recovery of economic metals remain to be discovered.     

The holstein interglaciation: Time-stratigraphic position and correlation to stable-isotope stratigraphy of deep-sea sediments

Marine molluscan shells from para-type and other loclities of the Holsteinian interglaciation were dated by Th/U and the electron spin resonance (ESR) method to more than 350,000 and 370,000 yr B.P., beyond the limit of Th/U dating. The high age estimate is corroborated by a K/Ar age of 420,000 yr B.P. determined from volcanic ash near the base of the Ariendorf paleosol in the Middle Rhine valley believed to be a pedostratigraphic equivalent of the Holsteinian. Shells from the Herzeele marine unit III, an equivalent of the Wacken (Dömnitz) warm stage in northern France and subsequent to the Holsteinian, revealed ages between 300,000 and 350,000 yr B.P. A correlation of these two warm stages with marine oxygen-isotope stages 11 and 9 on the SPECMAP and CARTUNE time scales is suggested. From the benthic oxygen-isotope record one may infer that no exceptionally high global sea-level rise corresponds to the large transgressions of the Holstein Sea in northern Germany. Therefore, a significant proportion of the transgression was probably the result of an unusually large local glacial-isostatic depression caused by the extreme buildup of ice during the preceding Elster glaciation (stage 12). According to the deep-sea record, it lasted approximately 50% longer than the subsequent cold stage 10. The outstanding soil formation with Braunlehm and the well-developed thermal optimum of the Holsteinian are tentatively related to a phase of minimum sea-ice cover in the Norwegian-Greenland Sea, as deduced from long benthic carbon-isotope records from the central Atlantic.     

Copper(II) humate mobility in kaolinite soil

An investigation of the influence of humate on the mobility of copper(II) ions in a kaolinite soil using leaching tests and electrokinetic experiments is reported. The data are interpreted in terms of humate–copper–clay interactions and humate electrical charge. Humate is mostly immobile below pH8 but is more mobile in alkaline conditions (sorption to kaolinite reduces its mobility in neutral conditions). Copper humate complexes are mobile in both acidic and alkaline conditions, but not in neutral conditions where they are sorbed. The dissolved copper humate complexes that form in acidic conditions are positively charged. The net effect of humate is to increase cupric ion mobility in kaolinite soil, especially in alkaline conditions.