Investigation of Hyporheic Microbial Biofilms as Indicators of Heavy Metal Toxicity in the Clark Fork Basin, Montana

Abstract:

Water-saturated sediments that underlie a stream channel contain microbial biofilms that are often responsible for the majority of the metabolic activity in river and stream ecosystems. Metal contamination from mining effluent can modify the biofilm community structure, diversity, and activity. Developing a mechanistic understanding of the biofilm response to metal contamination could provide a useful bioindicator of metal toxicity due to the ease of standard biofilm sampling, environmental ubiquity of biofilms and the rapid response of biofilms to environmental perturbation and metal toxicity. Here we present data on the structure of the biofilm community (e.g., microbial population composition and diversity) and trace metal concentrations in water, bed sediment and biota (benthic insects) across 15 sites in the Clark Fork Basin. Sample sites were selected across a historically-monitored metal pollution gradient at shallow riffles with bed sediment predominantly composed of pebbles, cobbles, and sand. Bed-sediment samples (for biofilm analysis) were obtained from the top 20 centimeters of the hyporheic zone and sieved using sterile sieves to obtain homogeneous sediment samples with particle sizes ranging from 1.70 to 2.36 millimeters. Linear discriminant analysis and effect size statistical methods were used to integrate the metals concentration data (for water and benthic-insects samples) with the microbial community analysis to identify microbial biomarkers of metal toxicity. The development of rapid microbial biomarker tools could provide reproducible and quantitative insights into the effectiveness of remediation activities on metal toxicity and advances in the field of environmental biomonitoring.