Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c4f8m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T05:18:08.780Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Influence of biofilms on transport of fluids in subsurface granitic environments — some mineralogical and petrographical observations of materials from column experiments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

P. Coombs*
Affiliation:
British Geological Survey (BGS), Kingsley Dunham Centre, Keyworth, Nottingham, NG12 5GG, UK
J. M. West
Affiliation:
British Geological Survey (BGS), Kingsley Dunham Centre, Keyworth, Nottingham, NG12 5GG, UK
D. Wagner
Affiliation:
British Geological Survey (BGS), Kingsley Dunham Centre, Keyworth, Nottingham, NG12 5GG, UK
G. Turner
Affiliation:
British Geological Survey (BGS), Kingsley Dunham Centre, Keyworth, Nottingham, NG12 5GG, UK
D. J. Noy
Affiliation:
British Geological Survey (BGS), Kingsley Dunham Centre, Keyworth, Nottingham, NG12 5GG, UK
A. E. Milodowski
Affiliation:
British Geological Survey (BGS), Kingsley Dunham Centre, Keyworth, Nottingham, NG12 5GG, UK
A. Lacinska
Affiliation:
British Geological Survey (BGS), Kingsley Dunham Centre, Keyworth, Nottingham, NG12 5GG, UK
H. Harrison
Affiliation:
British Geological Survey (BGS), Kingsley Dunham Centre, Keyworth, Nottingham, NG12 5GG, UK
K. Bateman
Affiliation:
British Geological Survey (BGS), Kingsley Dunham Centre, Keyworth, Nottingham, NG12 5GG, UK
*

Abstract

Landfill and radioactive waste disposal risk assessments focus on contaminant transport and are principally concerned with understanding the movement of gas, water and solutes through engineered barriers and naturalgroundwater systems. However, microbiologicalactivity can impact on transport processes changing the chemicaland physicalcharacteristics of the subsurface environment. Such effects are generally caused by biofilms attached to rock surfaces. This paper will present some mineralogical and petrographical observations of materials extracted at the completion of an experimental column study which examined the influences of biofilm growth on groundwater flow through crushed diorite from the Äspö Hard Rock Underground Research Laboratory, Sweden.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Banwart, S. (1995) The Äspö Redox Investigations in Block Scale Project summary and implications for repository assessment. Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Co., Stockholm, Sweden. SKB Technical Report, 95–26.Google Scholar
Beveridge, T. J., Makin, S. A. Kadurugamuwa, J. L. and Li, Z. (1997) Interactions between biofilms and the environment. FEMS Microbiology Reviews, 20, 291–303.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brydie, J.R., Wogelius, R.A., Merrifield, CM., Boult, S., Gilbert, P., Allison, D. and Vaughan, DJ. (2005) The |i2M project on quantifying the effects of biofilm growth on hydraulic properties of natural porous media and on sorption equilibria: an over-view. Pp. 131–144 in: Understanding the Micro to Macro Behaviour of Rock-fluid System. (Shaw, R.A., editor). Special Publication 249, Geological Society, London.Google Scholar
Cunningham, A.L., Warwood, B., Sturman, P., Horrigan, K., James, G., Costerton, J.W. and Hiebert, R. (1997) Biofilm processes in porous media — practical applications. Pp. 325–344 in: The Microbiology of the Terrestrial Deep Subsurfac. (Amy, P.A., Haldeman, D.L., editors). CRC Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton, Florida.Google Scholar
Hama, K., Bateman, K., Coombs, P., Hards, V.L., Milodowski, A.E., West, J.M., Wetton, P.D., Yoshida, H., and Aoki, K. (2001) Influence of bacteria on rock-water interaction and clay mineral formation in subsurface granitic environments. Clay Minerals, 36, 599–613.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hassett, DJ. (1996) Anaerobic production of alginate by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. alginate restricts diffusion of oxygen. Journal of Bacteriology, 178, 7322–7325.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Keith-Roach, M.J. and Livens, F.R. (editors) (2002) Interactions of Microorganisms with Radionuclides. Elsevier, Oxford, UK, 400 pp.Google Scholar
Konhauser, K.O., Fisher, Q.J., Fyfe, W.S., Longstaff, FJ. and Powell, M.A. (1998) Authigenic mineralisation and detrital clay binding by freshwater biofilms: The Brahmani River, India. Geomicrobiology Journal, 15, 209–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pedersen, K (1999) Subterranean microorganisms and radioactive waste disposal in Sweden. Engineering Geology, 52, 163–172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tuck, V.A., Edyvean, R.G.J., West, J.M., Bateman, K, Coombs, P., Milodowski, A.E. and McKervey, J.A. (2006) Biologically induced clay formation in subsurface granitic environments. Journal of Geochemical Exploration, 90, 123–133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
West, J.M. and McKinley, I.G. (2002) The geomicrobiology of radioactive waste disposal. Pp. 227–249 in: The Encyclopaedia of Environmental Microbiology (Bitton, G., editor). John Wiley, New York.Google Scholar