Community Response to Hydrocarbon Pollution in Iron Oxide Mats: An Environmental Study

Hydrocarbon pollution is a widespread issue in both groundwater and surface-water systems; however, research on remediation at the interface of these two systems is limited. This interface is the oxic-anoxic boundary, where hydrocarbon pollution from contaminated groundwaters flows into surface waters and where iron mats are formed by microaerophilic iron-oxidizing bacteria. Iron mats are highly chemically adsorptive and host a diverse community of microbes. They may be capable of remediating hydrocarbons before they disseminate. To elucidate whether the microbial community in iron mats has the potential to remove hydrocarbons and how the community responds to contaminant exposure, we sampled from both unexposed and exposed mats and conducted 16S amplicon sequencing of these samples. Ultimately, these results will help us better understand the impacts of hydrocarbon pollution on iron mat communities at the oxic-anoxic interface.