Geochemical and sulfur isotope signatures of microbial activity in acidic and sulfuric hot springs, northern Taiwan

Acidic and sulfuric hot springs are natural habitats for thermophilic sulfur-utilizing microorganisms. Integration of bioenergetic evaluation, molecular analysis and stable isotopic signatures may be able to exhibit a full view of microbial activity in such an extreme environment. Widely distributed hot springs hosted by the Tatung volcano group in northern Taiwan provide a chance to evaluate the interplay between geochemical variation and microbial metabolism especially for sulfur. Several hot spring ponds varying in sizes and geochemical characteristics were studied to reveal the possible control of fluid compositions on microbial metabolisms, and vice versa. Sulfate, sulfide, elemental sulfur and dissolved organic carbon were available in spring water and sediments in the ponds. Dominant microbial metabolisms inferred from the bioenergetic evaluation were aerobic oxidations of various reduced compounds, including elemental sulfur, pyrite, ferrous iron and organic carbon. Sulfate and sulfur reductions were thermodynamically favorable but provided less energy flux, while sulfur disproportionation was thermodynamically incapable. The analyses of 16S rRNA genes extracted from the spring water and sediments indicated that aerobic oxidation of sulfur, hydrogen or organic carbon and anaerobic elemental sulfur reduction were possible metabolisms. Since the major portion of 16S rRNA sequences were affiliated with unclassified environmental sequences, their potential metabolisms remained obscure. Sulfur isotopic compositions of dissolved sulfate, pyrite and elemental sulfur exhibited significant variations among the different hot spring ponds. Apparently, the microbial effects on the sulfur isotopic signatures were various. A disproportionation reaction of volcanic gas was required to account for high sulfur isotope difference between sulfate and reduced sulfur in the large hot ponds. In contrary, abiotic or microbial oxidation of reduced sulfur might be dominant in the small ponds, where only small sulfur isotopic fractionation occurred among the sulfur species. Both sulfate and elemental sulfur reduction could not be recognized as the sulfide in all ponds were not the most depleted in S-34.