Microorganisms of the Technogenic Landscapes: The Case of Nepheline-Containing Sands, the Murmansk Region

Abstract

The investigation of microbiological characteristics has been carried out in the sands of different storage duration in the tailing dumps of the apatite-nepheline processing plants. The total population density of bacteria ranged within 0.34–0.60 billion CFU/g in the sands without vegetation cover, and within 2.6–7.2 billion CFU/g in the reclaimed sands. Microfungi mycelium length varied from 5 to 280 m/g in the recultivated nepheline sands. Low biodiversity of fungi in the initial sands and absence of species-dominants in their complex have been revealed. Nepheline sands recultivation has given preconditions for forming the fungi complexes, which are typical for the regional podzol soils on the moraine sediments. Species diversity of the microfungi complexes in the recultivated sands is represented by 26 species, while only 11 species were isolated from the freshly pumped sands. The largest number of fungi species belonged to the Penicillium genera. Umbelopsis longicollis, Juxtiphoma eupyrena, Penicillium daleae were found to be the most commonly seen genera. The areas where the natural overgrowing processes take place are characterized by a higher algae population—up to 450 thousand cells per 1 g of the substrate in the 40-year-old sands under the sedge and crowberry plant groups, and up to 1.9 million cells in 1 g under the moss cover and in the young cryptogamous crusts. The research has revealed 69 algae and cyanobacteria species. In the 40-year-old sands, with the dominance of green algae, cyanobacteria and diatoms have played the significant role.