Environmental Remediation Sciences Researcher in Nature

Summary

NABIR-program researcher Dr. Jonathan R. Lloyd of the University of Manchester/UK recently published results of a study on anaerobic metal-reducing microorganisms and their impact on arsenic mobilization. The article, published in the journal Nature [430:68-71 (2004)], details how metal-reducing organisms may be involved in the mobilization of toxic arsenic within the groundwaters of West Bengal, India and Bangladesh. Dr. Lloyd and coworkers are the first to show a potential direct link between the stimulation of metal and arsenic-reducing bacteria and the mobilization of arsenic in actual aquifer sediments from the affected areas. Understanding the biogeochemical mechanisms of arsenic mobilization in these environments is a step towards identifying techniques to remove and/or prevent arsenic migration in groundwater.