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Life
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Microbial Composition and Function in Soil and Groundwater Systems: 2nd...
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Microbial Composition and Function in Soil and Groundwater Systems: 2nd Edition

A special issue of Life (ISSN 2075-1729). This special issue belongs to the section "Microbiology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (29 February 2024) | Viewed by 1154

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Yizhi Sheng

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, China
Interests: microbial biogeochemistry; microbe-mineral interaction; soil and groundwater contamination; microbial ecology; hydrogeochemistry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Juejie Yang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Grassland Science, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China
Interests: soil ecology; microbial ecology; environmental science and related fields; biogeochemical cycle of carbon and nitrogen in grassland soil; microbial diversity and functional change; grassland ecosystem health evaluation; sustainable utilization of grassland resources.
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Liang Guo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Geology and Environment, Xi’an University of Science and Technology, Xi’an 710054, China
Interests: groundwater microbiology; hydrochemistry; microbial diversity and function; mutual Interaction between microbial community and hydrochemistry; biogeochemical cycle
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Ying Liu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Soil and Water Sciences, College of Land Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China
Interests: environmental microbiology; microbiota-mediated elemental geochemical cycling processes; microbial community diversity and ecological aggregation mechanism; soil mineral-microbial extracellular electron transfer mechanism
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The editors are grateful to the researchers who contributed to the success of the first volume of this issue (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/life/special_issues/Microbial_Composition). We are very pleased to announce the second volume of our Special Issue.

Over a century of research on microorganisms in natural environments has shed light on their diverse community compositions and versatile functions, allowing us to understand some of their critical roles in soil and groundwater systems. Diverse microbial communities are present in soil at numbers of approximately 108 to 109 cells per gram, while they are less diverse in groundwater systems due to the nutrient-depleted conditions. Their presence maintains the fertility of the soil, transforms nutrients, weathers minerals, affects groundwater chemistry, and degrades organic matter, generating labile materials useful to other organisms. Most activities and functions of microbial communities in soil and groundwater are the direct result of their astounding metabolic versatility, relying on chemoheterotrophic/chemolithotrophic reactions involving organic/inorganic compounds for sources of energy and nutrients. These activities and functions link the biosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere in the Earth’s critical zone. Aside from natural processes, anthropogenic activities transport contaminants across surface soil to vadose-zone soil and groundwater, causing both positive and negative feedback from microbial communities. The abilities of microbial communities to destroy or detoxify organic and inorganic contaminants (e.g., heavy metals) are of huge significance to environmental protection and human health. This Special Issue will therefore present advances in understanding the metabolism, distribution, and underlying drivers of microbial communities and their functions in both pristine and contaminated soil and groundwater systems, with the aim of improving our understanding of global nutrient biogeochemical cycles, contaminant bioremediation, biotechnology development, and the exploration of biological resources.

Dr. Yizhi Sheng
Dr. Juejie Yang
Dr. Liang Guo
Dr. Ying Liu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Life is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • soil and groundwater
  • microbial community composition
  • element biogeochemical cycle
  • bioremediation
  • ecological restoration

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

14 pages, 1344 KiB  
Article
Assessing the Natural Source Zone Depletion of a Petroleum-Contaminated Clayey Soil Site in Southern China Combining Concentration Gradient Method and Metagenomics
by Zhe Xu, Min Zhang, Zhuo Ning, Ze He and Fenge Zhang
Life 2024, 14(3), 337; https://doi.org/10.3390/life14030337 - 04 Mar 2024
Viewed by 748
Abstract
Natural source zone depletion (NSZD) is the main process of LNAPL (Light Non-Aqueous Phase Liquid) removal under natural conditions. The NSZD rates assessed ranged from 0.55 to 11.55 kg·m−2·a−1 (kilograms per square meter per year) in previous studies. However, most [...] Read more.
Natural source zone depletion (NSZD) is the main process of LNAPL (Light Non-Aqueous Phase Liquid) removal under natural conditions. The NSZD rates assessed ranged from 0.55 to 11.55 kg·m−2·a−1 (kilograms per square meter per year) in previous studies. However, most of these data were obtained from sandy sites, with few clayey sites. To gain knowledge of NSZD in clayey soil sites, the study assessed the NSZD of a petroleum hydrocarbon-contaminated clayey soil site in China, combining the concentration gradient method with metagenomic sequencing technology. The results show that the abundance of methane-producing key enzyme mcrA gene in the source zone was more abundant than in background areas, which suggests that there was methanogenesis, the key process of NSZD. The concentration gradients of oxygen and carbon dioxide existed only in shallow soil (<0.7 m), which suggests that there was a thin methane oxidation zone in the shallow zone. The calculated NSZD rates range from 0.23 to 1.15 kg·m−2·a−1, which fall within the moderate range compared to previous NSZD sites. This study expands the knowledge of NSZD in clayey soil and enriches the attenuation rate data for contaminated sites, which is of significant importance in managing petroleum contaminants. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microbial Composition and Function in Soil and Groundwater Systems: 2nd Edition)
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