Genome-Scale Metabolic Modeling in the Simulation of Field-Scale Uranium Bioremediation

Abstract:

Coupled variably saturated flow and biogeochemical reactive transport modeling is used to improve understanding of the processes, properties, and conditions controlling uranium bio-immobilization in a field experiment where uranium-contaminated groundwater was amended with acetate and bicarbonate. The acetate stimulates indigenous microorganisms that catalyze metal reduction, including the conversion of aqueous U(VI) to solid-phase U(IV), which effectively removes uranium from solution. The initiation of the bicarbonate amendment prior to biostimulation was designed to promote U(VI) desorption that would increase the aqueous U(VI) available for bioreduction. The three-dimensional simulations were able to largely reproduce the timing and magnitude of the physical, chemical and biological responses to the acetate and bicarbonate amendment in the context of changing water table elevation and gradient. A time series of groundwater proteomic samples exhibited correlations between the most abundant Geobacter metallireducens proteins and the genome-scale metabolic model-predicted fluxes of intra-cellular reactions associated with each of those proteins. The desorption of U(VI) induced by the bicarbonate amendment led to initially higher rates of bioreduction compared to locations with minimal bicarbonate exposure. After bicarbonate amendment ceased, bioreduction continued at these locations whereas U(VI) sorption was the dominant removal mechanism at the bicarbonate-impacted sites.