The Iberian Pyrite Belt (IPB) hosts one of the world's largest accumulations of acidic mine wastes and pit lakes. The mineralogical and textural characteristics of the IPB ores have favored the oxidation and dissolution of metallic sulfides, mainly pyrite, and the subsequent formation of acidic mining drainages. This work reports the physical properties, hydrogeochemical characteristics, and mi...

Acidic peat bog soils produce CH4 and although molecular bio-logical studies have demonstrated the presence of diverse methano-genic populations in them, few studies have sustained methano-genesis by adding the CH4 precursors H2/CO2 or acetate, and few indigenous methanogens have been cultured. McLean Bog is a small (ca. 70 m across), acidic (pH 3.4–4.3) Sphagnum-dominated bog in upstate New Yo...

Low-sulfate, acidic (approximately pH 4) fens in the Lehstenbach catchment in the Fichtelgebirge mountains in Germany are unusual habitats for sulfate-reducing prokaryotes (SRPs) that have been postulated to facilitate the retention of sulfur and protons in these ecosystems. Despite the low in situ availability of sulfate (concentration in the soil solution, 20 to 200 ␮M) and the acidic conditi...

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Terrestrial subsurface geomicrobiology is a new frontier in environmental microbiology. It seeks to determine whether life can be sustained in the absence of solar radiation. Subsurface ecosystems are also intriguing astrobiological models useful in the re-creation of life in early Earth scenarios or ascertaining its possible existence on other planetary bodies. Although Darwin predicted a deep...

The Sorrento wetland hosts several Feand Mn-rich seeps that are reported to have appeared after the area was disturbed by recent attempts at development. Culture-independent and culture-based analyses were utilized to characterize the microbial community at the main site of the Fe and Mn seep. Several bacteria capable of oxidizing Mn(II) were isolated, including members related to the genera Ba...

Almost three centuries have passed since Henckel’s monumental work on pyrite (Henckel, 1725, 1757). The new book by David Rickard, world authority on sulfide chemistry, geochemistry, geomicrobiology, biogeochemistry and ore geology, is a most welcome state-of-the-art report about this humble but fascinating mineral. As stated in the preface, the book targets a popular rather than an academic au...

Reactive iron (Fe) oxides and sheet silicatebound Fe in reservoir rocks may affect the subsurface storage of CO2 through several processes by changing the capacity to buffer the acidification by CO2 and the permeability of the reservoir rock: (1) the reduction of threevalent Fe in anoxic environments can lead to an increase in pH, (2) under sulphidic conditions, Fe may drive sulphur cycling and...

Sulfidic seeps with methane ebullition were observed at the low-water line of intertidal sand flats at a number of locations in the Wadden Sea. Bioturbating fauna was absent in the seep areas but abundant in the more central areas of the tidal flat. At one site, the vertical methane and sulfate distribution in pore water was determined along transects from the low-water line toward the interior...