title: The functional potential of microbial communities in hydraulic fracturing source water and produced water from natural gas extraction characterized by metagenomic sequencing.
abstract: Microbial activity in produced water from hydraulic fracturing operations can lead to undesired environmental impacts and increase gas production costs. However, the metabolic profile of these microbial communities is not well understood. Here, for the first time, we present results from a shotgun metagenome of microbial communities in both hydraulic fracturing source water and wastewater produced by hydraulic fracturing. Taxonomic analyses showed an increase in anaerobic/facultative anaerobic classes related to Clostridia, Gammaproteobacteria, Bacteroidia and Epsilonproteobacteria in produced water as compared to predominantly aerobic Alphaproteobacteria in the fracturing source water. The metabolic profile revealed a relative increase in genes responsible for carbohydrate metabolism, respiration, sporulation and dormancy, iron acquisition and metabolism, stress response and sulfur metabolism in the produced water samples. These results suggest that microbial communities in produced water have an increased genetic ability to handle stress, which has significant implications for produced water management, such as disinfection.
authors.affiliation: National Energy Technology Laboratory, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
authors.forename: Arvind Murali
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Mohan
authors.affiliation: National Energy Technology Laboratory, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America; Department of Computational and Systems Biology, University of Pittsburgh Medical School, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
authors.forename: Kyle J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Bibby
authors.affiliation: National Energy Technology Laboratory, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lipus
authors.affiliation: National Energy Technology Laboratory, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
authors.forename: Richard W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Hammack
authors.affiliation: National Energy Technology Laboratory, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
authors.forename: Kelvin B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Gregory
mesh_terms: D020561:Alphaproteobacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D050260:Carbohydrate Metabolism / Q000235:genetics; D004777:Environment; D020565:Epsilonproteobacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics; D020563:Gammaproteobacteria / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D056186:Metagenomics; D059206:Natural Gas / Q000382:microbiology; D012335:RNA, Ribosomal / Q000235:genetics; D017421:Sequence Analysis; D013455:Sulfur / Q000378:metabolism*; D062065:Wastewater / Q000382:microbiology; D014871:Water Microbiology
chemical_list: D059206:Natural Gas; D012335:RNA, Ribosomal; D013455:Sulfur; D062065:Wastewater