HR: 0800h
AN: H21A-0999    [Abstracts]
TI: Modeling Subsurface Biogeochemical Cycling of Heavy Metals
AU: * Sengor, S S
EM: sssengor@ucdavis.edu
AF: Civil and Environmental Enginnering Department, One Shields Avenue, UC-Davis, Davis, CA 95616 United States
AU: Ginn, T R
EM: trginn@ucdavis.edu
AF: Civil and Environmental Enginnering Department, One Shields Avenue, UC-Davis, Davis, CA 95616 United States
AU: Sani, R K
EM: rajesh@mail.wsu.edu
AF: Chemical Engineering Department, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164 United States
AU: Peyton, B
EM: bmp@wsu.edu
AF: Chemical Engineering Department, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164 United States
AB: Mining of precious metals since the late 1800's has left the Western U.S. sediments at many sites heavily enriched with toxic metals, including Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn. Such sites include Lake Coeur d'Alene, the Yuba-Bear Watersheds and the Iron Mountain mining sites. Most of these metals are toxic, mutagenic and carcinogenic to biota, including humans, such that significant negative human/ecological impacts result from the metal-enriched dust, soil, and water. However, microorganisms indigenous to metal contaminated sediments are capable of catalyzing reactions that detoxify their environment, and thus constitute an important driving component in the biogeochemical cycles of these metals. It is vital to understand and quantify the biogeochemical reactions controlling the fate and transport of these metals to effectively model and predict changes in metal concentrations and microbial populations with respect to time and space. We present a preliminary microbial ecology model for simulating trace metal fate and transport in 1-D sediment systems, including Cu and Pb, and their effect on microbial consortia including multiple trophic groups. The model accounts for multiple electron acceptors, product inhibition, metal toxicity via an accounting of dose. Dose is expressed in a novel fashion as a structural variable in the population dynamics of the microbial consortia.
DE: 1831 Groundwater quality
DE: 0400 Biogeosciences
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting