Identification of sentinels bacterium by correlation of heavy metals in the microbiome, on mangrove sediments from the north-west coast of South America.. ecumangrove

Mangroves are coastal transitional ecosystems which are located between terrestrial and marine environment, and include a group of highly adaptive salt tolerant plants species inhabiting intertidal zones of tropical and subtropical coastlines. That creates unique ecological environments which host high species diversity (Bayen, 2012; Kathiresan, 2003). In this sense, mangroves are emphasize as one of the most productive and biologically diverse ecosystems in the world (S. Zhang et al., 2015), providing a number of ecosystem services like protection from tidal events and erosion (Alongi, 2002; Du Laing, Rinklebe, Vandecasteele, Meers, & Tack, 2009; Lewis, Pryor, & Wilking, 2011; Sandilyan & Kathiresan, 2014), carbon accumulation storage (Tuan vo et al., 2012), economic benefits to adjacent human populations, mainly due to tourism and fisheries (Bayen, 2012; Dias et al., 2012) and maintenance of biogeochemical cycles (Tuan vo et al., 2012).Although the importance of mangroves, they are considered as one of the most threatened ecosystems, especially in developing countries. They are under pollution pressure from anthropogenic activities due to rapid industrialization and urbanization of coastal regions (Wang et al., 2012; S. Zhang et al., 2015), with waste water discharges as the main source of contamination (Bai et al., 2011; Bayen, 2012; Brady et al., 2015; Fernández-Cadena et al., 2014; Pereira et al., 2015; Praveena et al., 2007; Yao et al., 2016). This anthropogenic pressure has adversely affected the mangrove environment and has resulted in mangrove sediments being important sinks for organic and inorganic contaminants derived from river runoff (Chai et al., 2015; de Souza Machado et al., 2016). As a result of the anthropogenic perturbation, mangrove forests are rapidly disappearing, with up to 50% being los over the past 50 years (Bouillon, 2011). However, less than 10% of the mangroves are considered protected areas (Lewis et al., 2011).Among anthropogenic pollutants, heavy metals (e.g. Ag, Cd, Cu, Pb, Sn, Zn) are considered as the most serious within the natural environment due to their toxicity, persistence, bioavailability and bioaccumulation (Defew et al., 2005; Gillan et al., 2015; Islam et al., 2015; Liu et al., 2015; Miola et al., 2016; Quillet et al., 2012; Roosa et al., 2014; Wu et al., 2016). Reports of the large capacity of sediments to retain heavy metals and that mangroves act as natural sinks, have been demonstrated previously (Lacerda et al., 2013; Tam et al., 1995).