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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Environ. Sci.

Sec. Ecosystem Restoration

Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2025.1590925

Microbial Community Structure and Potential Functional Diversity in a Post-Mining Ecosystem of Central China

Provisionally accepted
Quan  XuQuan Xu1Donghua  TanDonghua Tan2Jingqi  LiuJingqi Liu2Huangfeng  QiuHuangfeng Qiu2Yu  YangYu Yang3*
  • 1Hunan Coal Science Research Institute, Changsha, China
  • 2School of Minerals and Bioengineering, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan Province, China
  • 3Central South University, Changsha, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Abandoned coal mines cause severe soil degradation, water pollution, and biodiversity loss. This study characterizes microbial community dynamics across distinct microhabitats-slag-enriched soil (D-1), waterlogged sediment (W-3), and acidic wastewater (W-5)-in Hunan mining areas. High-throughput 16S rRNA sequencing revealed Proteobacteria (31-60%) dominance across sites, with Firmicutes enriched in acidic W-5 (49%) and Bacteroidetes in organic-rich D-1 (21%). Community diversity significantly diverged along pH/metal gradients (db-RDA: pH explained 74.8% variation, p<0.001), correlating with environmental stressors. Functional predictions (PICRUSt/FAPROTAX) suggest potential adaptations: sulfur oxidation increased in acidic zones (25.7%), while organic degradation peaked in contaminated soils (38.1%). These community-environment linkages support bioremediation design: augmenting acid-tolerant taxa in low-pH zones and pollutant-degrading microbes in metal-impacted soils to accelerate ecological restoration.

Keywords: Microbial Diversity, 16S rRNA sequencing, Abandoned coal mines, metal pollution, Microbial remediation, biogeochemical cycles

Received: 11 Mar 2025; Accepted: 04 Aug 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Xu, Tan, Liu, Qiu and Yang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Yu Yang, Central South University, Changsha, China

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