Geogenic arsenic and arsenotrophic microbiome in groundwater from the Hetao Basin

Abstract

High arsenic (As) in groundwater is an environmental issue of global concern, which is closely related to microbe-mediated As biogeochemical cycling. However, the distribution of genes related to As cycling and underlying microbial As biogeochemical processes in high As groundwater remain elusive. Hence, we profiled the As cycling genes (arsC, arrA, and aioA genes) and indigenous microbial communities in groundwater from a typical high As area, the Hetao Basin from China, using amplicon sequencing and qPCR techniques. Here, we revealed the significant difference in microbial community structure between low As groundwater samples (LG) and high As groundwater samples (HG). Acinetobacter, Thiovirga, Hydrogenophaga, and Sulfurimonas were dominant in LG, while Aquabcterium, Acinetobacter, Sphingomonas, Pseudomonas, Desulfomicrobium, Hydrogenophaga, and Nitrospira were predominant in HG. Shannon and Chao indices of the microbial communities in HG were significantly higher than those of in LG. Alpha diversity and abundance of arsC and arrA genes were higher than those of aioA genes. The significant positive correlation was uncovered between the abundances of arsC and aioA genes, suggesting the cooccurrence of As functional genes in groundwater. Sphingopyxis, Agrobacterium, Klebsiella, Hoeflea, and Aeromonas represented the dominant taxa within the As (V) reducers communities. Distance-based redundancy analysis showed that ORP, pH, As_tot, Mn, and DOC were the key factors shaping the diverse microbial populations, while ORP, S^2-, As(III), Fe(II), NH₄⁺, pH, Mn, SO₄^2-, As(V), temperature, and P as the main drivers affecting arsenotrophic microbiota. This work provides an insight into microbial communities linked to As biogeochemical processes in high As groundwater, playing a fundamental role in groundwater As cycling.

Keywords: Arsenic; Arsenotrophic microbiome; Groundwater; Microbial communities.