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

• Published in: FEMS Microbiology Ecology
• Main Authors: Møller, Annette, Barkay, Tamar, Abu Al-Soud, Waleed, Sørensen, Søren J, Skov, Henrik, Kroer, Niels A.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: 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; Arctic; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://curis.ku.dk/portal/da/publications/diversity-and-characterization-of-mercuryresistant-bacteria-in-snow-freshwater-and-seaice-brine-from-the-high-arctic(dca1281b-3b8c-4b15-b32a-4b403b8c73a0).html; https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1574-6941.2010.01016.x

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