Understanding variability in microbial biomining and bioremediation consortia; adaptation mechanisms for multiple extremes.

采矿是我们全球社会的核心，推动可持续矿产资源开发需要解决矿山废物管理和酸性矿山排水（AMD）广泛影响的问题。我提出的研究计划的主要目标是了解微生物物种和群体的作用、活动和适应机制的可变性，这些物种和群体是硫化物矿山废物风化的核心，特别是在较冷的环境中。一方面，这些微生物会导致AMD的产生，但如果我们能利用它们的能力，我们可以通过生物采矿来提取价值，或者通过生物修复来帮助减少AMD。重点是在安大略省萨德伯里附近长期建立的采矿，并将其与全球地点或远北（火环）可能的新采矿开发进行对比，该研究计划将解决两个主要问题，包括需要了解微生物群落如何适应不同的地球化学和气候条件。了解当我们希望建立特定的微生物群落或抑制它们的有害影响（即不受控制的AMD生产）时，我们如何更好地促进或抑制某些适应机制。短期研究目标旨在解决基本问题，包括：

Mining is central to our global society and the push towards sustainable mineral resource development requires addressing the issues around mine waste management and widespread impacts from acid mine drainage (AMD). The key objectives of my proposed research program are to understand the variability in both the role, activity, and adaptation mechanisms of microbial species and consortia that are central to the weathering of sulfidic mine waste, particularly in colder environments. On the one had these microbes lead to the production of AMD, but if we can harness their abilities, we can apply them to extract value through biomining, or help reduce AMD through bioremediation. With an emphasis on the long established mining around Sudbury, Ontario and contrasting these with global sites or possible new mining developments in the Far North (Ring of Fire), this research program will address two major issues including the need to understand how microbial consortia adapt to different geochemical and climate conditions within mine waste materials in situ, and secondly, to understand how we can better promote or inhibit certain adaptive mechanisms when we wish to either establish particular microbial communities, or inhibit their deleterious impact (i.e. uncontrolled AMD production). The short-term research goals aim to address fundamental questions including: 1) How does the ecology/functional diversity of microbial communities vary in different mining wastes in northern environments?; 2) How do AMD microbial communities adapt to high metal loads and low pH in colder environments and do they remain active at near zero/subzero temperatures?; 3) What is the cold-active AMD community microbiome in different mine waste systems and; 4) What are their metabolic properties (target genes/enzymes) that may be used in industrial applications (bioleaching or bioremediation). Over the 5 year grant, achieving these goals will advance our understanding of how these microbes drive Fe/S biogeochemical cycles in colder climates and how they might respond to perturbations, such as changes in land use, nutrient flux, and variable water and thermal regimes, in a region that will be subject to pronounced environmental change in the coming decades. Funding for this proposal will support the training of 4 graduate and 5 undergraduate students in environmental microbiology, genomics, bioinformatics, microbial bioleaching, and remediation, thus contributing new HQP required to promote sustainable mining in Canada, and elsewhere.