Carbon-based nanomaterials shift nutrient cycling and microbial communities in freshwater sediments

Session: Poster session

Charles Border, [email protected]
Sarah Ponte Cabral, Rochester Inst. of Tech., [email protected]
Elizabeth Wronko, Rochester Institute of Technology, [email protected]
Callie Babbitt, Rochester Institute of Technology, [email protected]
Andre Hudson, Rochester Institute of Technology, [email protected]
Anna Tyler, Rochester Institute of Technology, [email protected]

Abstract

Engineered nanomaterials are useful in a growing variety of applications and as such have an increasing potential to enter the environment.  Fullerenes, carbon-based nanomaterials used in energy, personal care products, and pharmaceuticals, are practically insoluble in water and as such have high potential to settle in benthic environments.  In this study, we evaluated the influence of C60 fullerenes on benthic-pelagic coupling, potential denitrification and microbial diversity in sediments of Irondequoit Bay and Ontario Beach, two embayments of Lake Ontario.  We found that C60 enhanced benthic ecosystem metabolism and altered dissolved inorganic nitrogen flux to the water column. The influence of C60 on biogeochemistry was context specific, however, varying between habitats, suggesting that the benthic environment has different susceptibility to nanomaterials. In Irondequoit Bay sediments, we also observed a slight increase in potential denitrification with increasing concentrations of C60 and substantial shifts in microbial community composition in the presence of C60, with an increase in the relative abundance of nitrifiers and bacteroidetes, and a decrease in cyanobacteria and proteobacteria.  These data suggest that when release to the environment is high, carbon-based nanomaterials may have a significant on freshwater benthic ecosystem function.

1. Keyword
environmental contaminants

2. Keyword
biogeochemistry

3. Keyword
benthos

4. Additional Keyword
microbial communities