Floc Microbial Fe Redox Cycling and Implications for Trace Elements in Freshwater Environments

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Improving water quality of our freshwater resources through development of more effective monitoring programs and more sustainable waste management strategies for resource sectors reliant on water use, i.e. the mining industry, is vital to Canada's continued socio-economic prosperity and health. Meeting this critical need requires greater understanding of the complex processes affecting contaminant behaviour in freshwater systems. In particular, the activity of bacteria naturally occurring in aquatic systems is well appreciated to be important in these processes but remains poorly understood. Identification of these environmental bacterial roles in contaminant behaviour offers new opportunities for better management and mitigation of contaminated systems. The proposed research directly addresses the need for greater understanding through innovative objectives that will newly identify key interactions among environmental microbial communities, mineral phases and environmental conditions that drive contaminant sequestration - mobilization in water bodies. It will specifically investigate a poorly studied aquatic system compartment, floc, (suspended microbe-mineral aggregates widespread in aquatic systems), which has recently been shown by the investigator's group to be vitally important to contaminant behaviour. It will generate transformative understanding of how floc microorganisms orchestrate biomineral formation and identify the implications for floc contaminant sequestration. Results will have direct application to contaminated waters, offering new insight for the development of smarter biological strategies for management, mitigation and monitoring. It will train 5 post-graduate highly qualified personnel in leading edge, multidisciplinary techniques. These new trainees directly address the shortage of highly skilled workers currently occurring in areas of vital importance to Canada's continued economic, environmental and socio-political success: mining, environmental consulting and government environmental monitoring and regulatory sectors.