Microbial communities from weathered outcrops of a sulfide-rich ultramafic intrusion

The Duluth Complex in Northeastern Minnesota contains sulfide-rich magmatic intrusions that, collectively, represent one of the world's largest known economic deposits of copper, nickel, and platinum group elements. We used 16S rRNA gene methods to characterize the microbial communities present on the surfaces of naturally weathered and historically disturbed outcrops of Duluth Complex material, as well as to characterize sulfide mineral incubation experiments that were inoculated with environmental microbial communities and algae from the site.