Microbial communities can be affected by Cadmium, Mercury and others heavy metal. How selective pressure occur in this kind of habitat?
The impact will depend on the microbes, the specific metals and their concentrations. Some metals will cause a change in the cells osmotic pressure which can facilitate cell lysis. Other metals will pose a different toxicity mechanism. The exact mechanism will depend on the microbe-metal combination. Some metals, at low concentrations may be a micronutrient.
The effect will be based on the concentration, solubility/availability, oxidation state of metal and specially on the availability of other metal ions in the surrounding environment to which also a heavy metal can bind.
Bacteria sensitive to particular metal will be suppressed and others will dominate, beside this metal can affect the action of exoenzymes secreted. Factors will lead to change in normal microbial diversity.
increased metal concentrations in an environment can inhibit microbial growth by disrupting their physiological balance.
this is an important relationship because microbes form an important part of the food chain of any environment and if disrupted can affect nutrient availability.
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