Environmental drivers of shifts on microbial traits in sites disturbed by a large-scale tailing dam collapse

Abstract This study aimed to assess the most affected traits related to microbial ecophysiology and activity and investigate its relationships with environmental drivers in mine tailings spilled from the Fundao dam at disturbed sites across Gualaxo do Norte river, Minas Gerais, Brazil. The mine tailings are characterized by increased pH value, silt percentage, and bulk density, while clay percentage, organic carbon (Corg), total nitrogen (Nt), and moisture contents are reduced. Microbial biomass, enzymatic activities (arylsulfatase, β-1,4-glucosidase, acid and alkaline phosphatases), and the total microbial activity potential (FDA hydrolysis) were generally lower in tailings compared to undisturbed reference soil (Und). Enzyme-based indexes (GMea, WMean, and IBRv2) showed microbial communities with significantly lower degradative efficacy in the tailings than Und in all sites (R2 ≥ 0.94, p