Effects of carbon nanotubes and derivatives of graphene oxide on soil bacterial diversity

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs), reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and ammonia-functionalized graphene oxide (aGO), are nanomaterials that possess varied and useful properties. However, following their use, their release into the environment is inevitable. While CNTs have been shown to influence soil bacterial diversity, albeit at very high concentration, the effects of rGO have only been examined using pure bacterial cultures, and those of aGO are unknown. Here, we investigated the effects of CNTs, rGO and aGO, at three time points (7, 14 and 30 days), and over a range of concentrations (1 ng, 1 {micro}g and 1 mg kg dry soil-1), on soil bacterial diversity using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. Graphite was included to facilitate comparisons with a similar and naturally occurring carbon material, while the inclusion of GO allowed the effects of GO modification to be isolated. Bacterial community composition, but not alpha diversity, was altered by all treatments except the low GO, low rGO and high aGO treatments on day 14 only. In all cases, the nanomaterials led to shifts in community composition that were of similar magnitude to those induced by graphite and GO, albeit with differences in the taxa affected. Our study highlights that nanocarbon materials can induce changes in soil bacterial diversity, even at doses that are environmentally realistic.