Acide Mine Drainage Glossary

(we are open for suggestions for terminology which might be useful)

16s rRNA -

A

Acidophilic bacteria - bacteria growing well in an acid medium.

Acid-tolerant anaerobic microorganisms - organisms, such as bacteria, that can live without oxygen in low pH (acidic) environment.

Acid base reaction - an exchange (neutralization) reaction resulting in the production of a salt and a water.

Acid mine drainage - See acid rock drainage.

Acid rock drainage - low pH drainage derived from materials with an insufficient capacity to neutrilize the acidic products to sulfide and elemental sulfur oxidation and the dissolution products of acidic minerals and amorphous minerals. ARD is also produced when neutralization potentialis no longer capable of maintaining neutral pH conditions in a measurable volume of drainage. In the context of mining, may also be referred to as acid mine drainage (AMD).

Aerobe - an organism that grows in the presence of oxygen, may be facultative, obligate, or microaerobic.

Algae - any of various chiefly aquatic, eukaryotic, photosynthetic organisms, ranging in size from single-celled forms to the giant kelp.

Alkalinity - a pressure- and temperature-independent property of water that determines in part the carbon content. Formally defined as the equivalent sum of the bases that are titrable with strong acid.

AMD attenuation - the lessening in severity of acidic waters resulting from microbial activity and other remediation processes.

Anaerobe - an organism that grows in the absence of oxygen, some may even be killed by oxygen.

Anion - negatively charges ion.

Aquiclude - a low-permeability unit that forms either the upper or lower boundary of a ground-water flow system.

Aquifer - rock or sediment in a formation, group formations, or part of a formation that is saturated and sufficiently permeable to transmit economic quantities of water to wells and springs.

Archaea - a phyligenetic domain of prokaryotes consisting of the methogens, most extreme halophiles and hyperthermophiles, and thermoplasma.

Autotroph - an organism that is able to use carbon dioxide as a sole source of carbon.

B

Bacteria - all prokaryotes that are not members of the domain archea.

Bedrock aquifer - See aquifer.

C

Cation - positively charged ion.

Cation exchange - a process in which cations in solution are exchanged with cations held on the exchange sites of mineral and organic matter, particularly on the surfaces of colloids of clay and humus.

Chemolithotroph - an organism that obtains its energy from oxydation of inorganic compounds.

Chemoorganotroph - an organism that obtains its energy from the oxidation of organic compounds. (Also called organoheterotroph)

Clone library -

Conductivity - the ease with which a me\aterial transmits an electric current. A high conductivity indicates a solution with a high charged ion content, a property sometimes used to detect ARD.

Consortium - a two or more membered bacterial culture (or natural assemblage) in which each organism benefits from others.

Country rock - the preexisting rock.

D

Darcy's Law - an equation that can be used to compute the quantity of water flowing through an acquifer. The law holds if Reynold's number is less than 10 which means there is a laminar flow. V=Ki

Dissolved organic carbon -

E

Effluent - water discharged into the environment from a man-made structure. For example, the drainage products from a water treatment plant.

Eh - a sum of oxidation reduction potential and electrode potential. A measure of oxidation reduction potential.

Eukaryote - an organism or cell that has a unit membrane-enclosed (true) nucleus and usually other organelles.

Extended Debye-Huckle equation - a model that allows the activity coefficient for single ions to be calculated on the basis of the effect ionic interactions should have on free energy. Extended Dubye-Huckle is applied when I<0.1

where A, B, a0 are parameters defined by temperature at 1 atm, z - charge, I - ionic strength.

F

Fluorescent probes - short oligonucleotides of unique sequences used as a hybridization probes that emit light in an effort to identify organisms of interest.

G

Geochemical speciation models - based on physical chemistry and thermodynamics to predict activity coefficient for aqueous systems.

Geochemistry - a branch of geology that deals with chemical composition and changes of the earth.

H

Hardpan - condition of the soil in which the soil grains become cemented together by such bonding agents as iron oxide and calcium carbonate, forming hard, impervious mass. This usually occurs in acidic soil.

Heterotroph - See chemoorganotroph.

Hydraulic conductivity - in m/sec, a coefficient of proportionality describing the rate at which water can move through a permeable medium. The density and kinematic viscosity of the water must be considered in determining hydraulic conductivity.

Hydraulic head - the sum of elevation head, the pressure head, and the velocity head at a given point in an aquifer.

I

Iron-reducing organisms -

M

Mesophile - organism living in the temperature range near that of warm-blooded animals, and usually showing a growth temperature optimum between 25 and 40 degrees Celsius.

Microcosms - a small, representative system having analogies to a larger system in constitution, configuration or development.

Mixotroph - an organism able to assimilate organic compounds as carbon sourceswhile using inorganiccompounds as electron donors for energy metabolism.

N

Natural Attenuation -

O

Oxidation-reduction potential -

P

PCR -

pH - the negative logarithm to the base 10 of the hydrogen ion activity [H+] in solution.

Phylogenetic - based on natural evolutionary relationship.

Prokaryote - a cell or organism lacking a nucleus and other membrane-enclosed organelles, usually having its DNA in a single circular molecule.

Pyrite - a brass-colored mineral, FeS2 , occurring widely and used as an iron ore and in producing sulfur dioxide for sulfuric acid.

R

Residence time - represents the average time a molecule of water spends in the reservoir between the time it arrives and the time it leaves. Obtained by dividing the amount of water in the reservoir by the flux of water into the reservoir.

Reynold's Number - a number defined by an equation, that can be used to determine whether flow will be laminar or turbulent.

where rho -density, VD- quantity of water flowing, dm- mean pore diameter, µ - viscosity of fluid.

S

Species richness - number of species.

Storativity - the volume of water an aquifer releases from or takes into storage per unit surface area of the aquifer per unit change in head. It is equal to the product of specific storage and aquifer thickness.

Sulfate-reducing organisms -

Synergy - the interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects.

T

Tailings pile - a layer of the ground rock waste product form a mill or a process plant, the materials remaining after the economically valuable elements are removed from the ore.

Thermophile - an organismwith a growth temperature optimum between 45 and 80 degrees Celsius.

U

Unconsolidated material - inorganic and organic matrices produced by weathering, sediment deposition, biological accumulation, human or vulcanic activity and occuring in the planet earth's surface. Also known as non-lithifies material.

W

Weir - a low dam built across a stream to raise its level or divert its flow.

References:

Madigan, M.T., Martinko, J.M., and Parker, J. 2003. BROCK, Biology of Microorganisms. Tenth Edition. Prentice Hall, New Jersey.

http//:www.dictionary.com

Fetter, C.W. Applied Hydrogeology. Prentice Hall. New Jersey, 2001