The response of bacterial communities to V and Cr and novel reducing bacteria near a vanadium‑titanium magnetite refinery

Soil contamination with multiple heavy metals has always been a pressing issue, but little attention has been given to V and Cr and their chemical fractions' impacts on microorganisms because Cr₂O₃ usually occurs as an associated mineral in vanadium mines. To investigate this issue, samples (N1-N6) less affected by anthropogenic activities were selected for microbial analysis. The area near the refinery was heavily contaminated according to the PLI (pollution load index). Actinobacteriota, Proteobacteria, and Chloroflexi were the dominant phyla in the soil. The diversity of bacteria was positively influenced by V and Cr and negatively influenced by pH, while the abundance was positively correlated with soil nutrients. Interestingly, the influence of heavy metals in the residual fraction on the microbial community structure and functional metabolism was higher than that in the oxidizable fraction, which may be due to the relatively low heavy metal valence of the oxidizable fraction, suggesting that low valence binding forms of multivalence elements have little effect on microorganisms in the soil. Ultimately, two strains with great efficiency in reducing V and Cr were screened, and co-occurrence network characteristics with significant positive interactions suggested that Bacillus can coordinate community structure in the same niche. This research will help to explore the bioavailability of heavy metals and further achieve the bioremediation of heavy metal contamination in soil.