Preliminary assessment of microbial mats in seawater metal remediation

Abstract

Microbial mats have a special role in the removal of metals in marine environment. This study aimed to experimentally determine the efficiency of Cr removal from seawater by microbial mats. The effect of Cr on the microphytobenthic community and the influence of an aerated condition on the removal of metal and microorganisms were also considered. Hence, microbial mat samples were subdivided in 4 groups: submerged in Cr (chromium 2 mg/L without aeration), Cr + O2 (chromium 2 mg/L with aeration), SW + O 2 (filtered seawater with aeration), and a con- trol: SW (filtered seawater with neither chromium nor aeration). Water and microbial mat subsamples were used to determine Cr concentrations, organic matter content, granulometry, physicochemical parameters, chlorophyll a, phaeopigments, and quantitative analy- sis of the microphytobenthic community. Cr removal efficiency from seawater was 95% for the Cr treat- ment and 99% for the Cr + O2 treatment. The abun- dance of cyanobacteria tended to decrease between the initial and final days of the assay, whereas the opposite trend was observed for diatoms. Two aspects are worth noting in the paper: microbial mats effi- ciently removed Cr from seawater at a concentration of 2 mg Cr/L and the removal of Cr by microbial mats was more efficient with water aeration.