Differential colonization of microbial communities inhabiting Lede stone in the urban and rural environment

Laurenz Schröer, Tim De Kock, Veerle Cnudde, Nico Boon*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Air pollution is one of the main actors of stone deterioration. It influences not only the material itself but also prokaryotes colonizing rocks. Prokaryotes can affect rock substrates and biological colonization will most likely become relatively more important during the course of the 21st century. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the effects of air pollution on biological colonization and on the impact of this colonization on rock weathering. For this reason, we studied the prokaryotic community of Lede stone from two deteriorated monuments in Belgium: one in the urban and one in the rural environment. This research conducts 16S rRNA gene Next Generation Sequencing combined with an isolation campaign. It revealed diverse and complex prokaryotic communities with more specialized bacteria present in the urban environment, while archaea were barely detected. Some genera could cause biodeterioration but the isolates did not produce a significant amount of acid. Soluble salts analysis revealed an important effect of salts on the prokaryotic community. Colour measurements at least indicate that a main effect of prokaryotes might be on the aesthetics: In the countryside prokaryotic communities seemed to discolour Lede stone, while pollution most likely blackened building stones in the urban environment.

Original languageEnglish
Article number139339
Pages (from-to)1-13
Number of pages13
JournalScience of the Total Environment
Volume733
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2020

Funding

Laurenz Schröer has a PhD fellowship by The Research Foundation - Flanders ( FWO , Research grant number: 11D4518N and 11D4520N ) and acknowledges its support in financing this research project. We would like to thank Tim Lacoere, Jasmine Heyse, Dr. Frederiek-Maarten Kerckhof and Jana De Bodt for their help with the 16S rRNA gene sequencing analysis and the isolates. Dr. Tim De Kock was a postdoctoral research fellow of the FWO and postdoctoral assistant at UGent during part of this study and acknowledges their support.

Keywords

  • 16S rRNA gene sequencing
  • Air pollution
  • Biodeterioration
  • Discoloration
  • Isolation
  • Stone conservation

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