Indigenous microbial influence on REE enrichment and fractionation in South China weathering crusts: Insights from experimental simulations

Abstract

The activity of microorganism plays an important role on the enrichment, migration and fractionation of rare earth elements (REEs) in the supergene environment. To investigate the characteristics of indigenous microorganisms on the enrichment and fractionation of REEs, we studied the adsorption efficiencies of REEs by 30 indigenous microbial strains that were isolated and cultured from the weathering profile of a regolith-hosted REE deposit in South China. Most microbial strains exhibited high adsorption efficiencies for REEs, ranging from 2.3 to 42.9 mg g−1. Notably, the taxonomic classification of microorganisms significantly influenced the adsorption selectivity. Gram-positive bacteria exhibited a pronounced enrichment of the heavy REEs, while gram-negative bacteria showed no obvious adsorption preference. The tetrad effects were observed in REE adsorption patterns of gram-negative bacteria and fungi; however, fungi demonstrated a much higher affinity for light and medium REEs. Chemically modified microbial cells were employed to investigate the adsorption mechanism, revealing that distinct functional groups of microbial cells corresponded to the adsorption preference of microorganisms towards REE. Carboxyl and phosphate groups contributed to a relatively high adsorption capacity for light REEs and heavy REEs, respectively. The findings of our study suggest that the distinct composition of microbial groups may exert a significant influence on the biogeochemical cycle of REE in weathering profiles.