Abstract
It is well-established that atmospheric deposition transports mercury from lower latitudes to the Arctic. The role of bacteria in the dynamics of the deposited mercury, however, is unknown. We characterized mercury-resistant bacteria from High Arctic snow, freshwater and sea-ice brine. Bacterial densities were 9.4 × 10(5), 5 × 10(5) and 0.9-3.1 × 10(3) cells mL(-1) in freshwater, brine and snow, respectively. Highest cultivability was observed in snow (11.9%), followed by freshwater (0.3%) and brine (0.03%). In snow, the mercury-resistant bacteria accounted for up to 31% of the culturable bacteria, but
Original language | English |
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Journal | F E M S Microbiology Ecology |
Volume | 75 |
Issue number | 3 |
Pages (from-to) | 390-401 |
Number of pages | 12 |
ISSN | 0168-6496 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Mar 2011 |
Keywords
- Arctic Regions
- Bacteria
- Biodiversity
- Drug Resistance, Bacterial
- Fresh Water
- Ice Cover
- Mercury
- Microbial Sensitivity Tests
- Molecular Sequence Data
- Oxidation-Reduction
- RNA, Ribosomal, 16S
- Snow
- Water Pollutants, Chemical