For more than 150 years, industrial pollution, chemical waste and wastewater flow to Gowanus in Brooklyn. The waterway is often described in New York City One of the most pollutants In the United States. It was filled and developed from wetlands tidal and carrots and fresh water creeks in its current form in the mid -nineteenth century, in order to serve as a way to transport in urban areas. Although paper mills, petroleum plants, tanning and manufacturers that have previously been lined up on their banks are now, their legacy of poisonous dumping and discharge remains – not to mention the joint sanitation flow that is still leaking directly to the channel.
“He accumulates anywhere from ten to twenty feet of contaminated deposits at the bottom of the channel,” he says. Elizabeth honeyThe organizing biologist at New York University.
But in the midst of all this poisonous mud, life finds a way. Microbes in Gowanus deposits have evolved ways to deal with pollution and even authorship, according to a new research that he co -authored Héf. Hundreds of solid microbes, equipped with dozens of metabolism paths to break pollution, live at the bottom of the canal, for each The study was published April 15 in Applied Microbiology Magazine. These bacteria, archaeological and viruses slowly isolated heavy metals and eat their way through some of the worst compounds that still exist in mud.
The silver lining of Slo-MO environmental disaster is that engineers and biologists may have the opportunity to harness these superior errors to help remove toxins from Gowanus and polluted sites elsewhere. This process known as biological treatment has been applied to challenges such as wastewater treatment and cleaning oil spills, including the 1989 Exxon Valdez incident in Alaska. In this way, the “sludge” becomes a “reservoir for potential solutions”, he says Sergus-pans by ColocotonsA co -author of the study, evolutionary biologist and epidemic specialist at Sunwnstate Health Sciences.
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To discover the possibilities of the hidden channel, Hénaff and Kolokotronis performed their first microbial and genetic scanning for Guanus. They blasphemy on the notorious waterway and collected sediments from the upper layer of Gunk using the PVC tube. They also obtained a deeper sediments than an environmental contractor working with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Simply obtained the samples was not easy. “Not the same is the same as going to the garden and picking the soil,” says Colocotons. “This is dangerous for all boats participants,” he added. In many cases, researchers had to infringe on sites. After that, there is water and the same roads, which necessitated full personal protection equipment to reduce contact.
Again in the laboratory, scientists analyzed the DNA in these samples to determine the existing species and dig into their genetic makeup. They compared Gowanus data with pre -documented organisms and functions of other databases. The team found 455 different species of microbe (including salt and corresponding temperature), 64 metabolic metal paths known to calm organic notes such as phenol and toluene, and 1,171 genes related to heavy metal compliance. They also classified thousands of genetic and unrestricted jewelry groups with the possibility of smashing pollutants.
It is the first step in what can be a long -term project, he says Max hägblomEnvironmental Biology scientist at the University of Rutgers in New Jersey, who did not participate in the new research. Guanus says, “such chemical soup.” “This makes it really interesting for microbiologists because it is basically a hot point for choosing and developing microorganisms with the ability to deteriorate these different chemicals.”
Hägblom agrees that the channel can be a useful source of organisms that poison toxins. But in order to know with certainty, we need laboratory experiments to follow the presence and concentration of pollutants over time in a mini -mini -form.
If microbes can really break pollution, all types of biological processing projects may be “mining”. Living organisms that are grown and stored in biomedes may help filtering through polluted water and clay. Instead, the transformation of the environmental conditions of the waterway slightly (for example, adding the correct mixture of nutrients) to enhance beneficial bacteria can accelerate environmental recovery at the lowest cost and disorder. The sediments that were scived through the continuous EPA Superfund treatment project may become less dangerous before mixing lands by mixing and drowning with these useful errors.
The results also act as a ground reality for the channels of the channel, says Hénaff and Kolokotronis. “These records of microbes can be more accurate than the human kept records,” explains Kolokotronis. The microbial adaptations prove the presence of toxins that have not been documented in environmental monitoring and the regulation of the waterway. “There is a poetic thing about the memory of these organisms.” In addition to science, the researchers also compiled their results Public art exhibition About the history of the Gowanus channel and the Makrawah Environment, called channel.
According to Hägblom, it is wonderful, and if not surprising, these types of microbes appear routinely under these hostile conditions. Many microorganisms can exchange genes with each other, allowing the spread of useful features without having each type to go individually through mutation and natural selection. Under the pressure of trying to stay in a toxic environment, and without standard resources for energy production such as oxygen, bacteria and viruses often share alternative solutions: including ways to use chemicals such as dual -chlorine vinyl compounds and breathing hydrocarbons. “This is the nature that takes its path.”
However, despite the wide range of microbes that include pollution in Gowanus, it is unable to clean the channel on its own. For anyone, although many microorganisms adjust heavy metals such as cobalt and arsenic, microorganisms cannot actually eliminate these toxic elements. The only way to remove minerals is to sweep it from the waterway as soon as it contains. Microbes Be able to Play a role in recycling these minerals for new uses. “It is an exciting possibility,” says Hanaf. Many channel pollutants are resources in a different context. “Many heavy metals are extracted between toxic pollutants elsewhere to serve as a technology and industry supplier,” you notice. Nevertheless, again, human cooperation requires living organisms.
Other non -metal organic pollutants in Gowanus can be divided into non -toxic forms by microbes alone. But not in the perfect speed and scale. Hägblom says, the microbes will take centuries or even thousands of years to work on their way through pollution.
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As Gowanus continues to soup in the open, it constitutes permanent risks to public health – exposing the residents close to Air and unhealthy soil. One of the least fun study results was that the channel also contains a wide range of genes for antimicrobial resistance. The risk is the reason that the Environmental Protection Agency is working to scatter the toxic deposits of Gowanus. Ultimately, this may be the right advocacy, says Hénaf.
But until the sludge is permanently buried and the death of microbes under a tangible grave, why does the channel not treat it as more than a mistake? Why do not we learn everything we can from the polluted world that we have accidentally built?
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