Diversity and characterization of mercury-resistant bacteria in snow, freshwater and sea-ice brine from the High Arctic

Annette Møller, Tamar Barkay, Waleed Abu Al-Soud, Søren J Sørensen, Henrik Skov, Niels A. Kroer

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77 Citations (Scopus)

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 languageEnglish
JournalF E M S Microbiology Ecology
Volume75
Issue number3
Pages (from-to)390-401
Number of pages12
ISSN0168-6496
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 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

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