XVI International Botanical Congess

The Berkeley Pit Lake System is estimated to contain more than 30 billion gallons of acidic, metal-laden water. Current investigations examine how the naturally occurring organisms in the Berkeley Pit Lake System might be stimulated by nutrient additions to begin a self-purification process for aqueous environments impacted by acid minedrainage. The combined physiological processes have been observed to bioremediate aquatic mine waste environments. Consequently, if a mine waste site like the Berkeley Pit Lake System is properly nutrified withNitrogen, Phosphorous, or Potassium (eg. Manure or sewage as inexpensive sources), this nutrification may cause a successional cascade of increased diversity and biomass that is coupled with an increase in pH. A pH increase, in turn, may lead to a natural restoration process. Thus, ifsystems are to function correctly and to recover from pollution-inducedperturbations, fundamental information both on the autotrophic and on the heterotrophic components of the microbial community is essential. Defining the baseline community structure is the first step toward understanding the interactions of the different groups of extremeophiles and toward assessing any improvement in biodiversity within the biotic community.