Journal article
Harnessing plant-microbiome interactions for bioremediation across a freshwater urbanization gradient
Water research (Oxford), Vol.223, 118926
09/01/2022
DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2022.118926
PMID: 36044799
Abstract
•Duckweed microcosms rapidly transformed benzotriazole in >60 experimental contexts.•Microcosms with diverse microbiomes or algae transformed more benzotriazole.•Microbiome composition correlated with benzotriazole transformation products.•Duckweeds from rural sites had greater bioremediation potential.•Harnessing variation in plants and microbiomes can improve bioremediation.
Urbanization impacts land, air, and water, creating environmental gradients between cities and rural areas. Urban stormwater delivers myriad co-occurring, understudied, and mostly unregulated contaminants to aquatic ecosystems, causing a pollution gradient. Recipient ecosystems host interacting species that can affect each others’ growth and responses to these contaminants. For example, plants and their microbiomes often reciprocally increase growth and contaminant tolerance. Here, we identified ecological variables affecting contaminant fate across an urban-rural gradient using 50 sources of the aquatic plant Lemna minor (duckweed) and associated microbes, and two co-occurring winter contaminants of temperate cities, benzotriazole and salt. We conducted experiments totalling >2,500 independent host-microbe-contaminant microcosms. Benzotriazole and salt negatively affected duckweed growth, but not microbial growth, and duckweeds maintained faster growth with their local, rather than disrupted, microbiota. Benzotriazole transformation products of plant, microbial, and phototransformation pathways were linked to duckweed and microbial growth, and were affected by salt co-contamination, microbiome disruption, and source sites of duckweeds and microbes. Duckweeds from urban sites grew faster and enhanced phytotransformation, but supported less total transformation of benzotriazole. Increasing microbial community diversity correlated with greater removal of benzotriazole, but taxonomic groups may explain shifts across transformation pathways: the genus Aeromonas was linked to increasing phototransformation. Because benzotriazole toxicity could depend on amount and type of in situ transformation, this variation across duckweeds and microbes could be harnessed for better management of urban stormwater. Broadly, our results demonstrate that plant-microbiome interactions harbour manipulable variation for bioremediation applications.
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Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Harnessing plant-microbiome interactions for bioremediation across a freshwater urbanization gradient
- Creators
- Anna M. O’Brien - University of TorontoZhu Hao Yu - University of TorontoClara Pencer - University of TorontoMegan E. Frederickson - University of TorontoGregory H. LeFevre - Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering and IIHR-Hydroscience & Engineering, University of Iowa, 4105 Seamans Center, Iowa City, IA, 52242, USAElodie Passeport - University of Toronto
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Water research (Oxford), Vol.223, 118926
- Publisher
- Elsevier Ltd
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.watres.2022.118926
- PMID
- 36044799
- ISSN
- 0043-1354
- eISSN
- 1879-2448
- Grant note
- DOI: 10.13039/100000001, name: National Science Foundation; DOI: 10.13039/100000084, name: National Science Foundation Directorate for Engineering, award: 1844720; DOI: 10.13039/100000936, name: Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, award: GBMF9356; DOI: 10.13039/501100000038, name: Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada; DOI: 10.13039/501100001804, name: Canada Research Chairs, award: 950-230892; DOI: 10.13039/501100003579, name: University of Toronto
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 09/01/2022
- Academic Unit
- Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Record Identifier
- 9984288742302771
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