Terry C Hazen

University of Tennessee | UTK · Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

The COVID-19 pandemic brought about an urgent need to monitor the community prevalence of infection and detect the presence of SARS-CoV-2. Testing individual people is the most reliable method to measure the spread of the virus in any given community, but it is also the most expensive and time-consuming. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has been...

The environmental implications of unconventional oil and gas extraction are only recently starting to be systematically recorded. Our research shows the utility of microbial communities paired with geochemical markers to build strong predictive random forest models of unconventional oil and gas activity and the identification of key biomarkers.

Bacillus cereus strain CPT56D‐587‐MTF (CPTF) was isolated from the highly contaminated Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR) subsurface. This site is contaminated with high levels of nitric acid and multiple heavy metals. Amplicon sequencing of the 16S rRNA genes (V4 region) in sediment from this area revealed an amplicon sequence variant (ASV) with 100% ide...

Omics studies (metagenomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, proteomics) for marine oil biodegradation research increased rapidly after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DWH) accident in the Gulf of Mexico. Since then, it has been demonstrated how omics techniques can be used to model and better understand pre-spill environments, monitoring during a spill...

Bacillus cereus strain CPT56D-587-MTF was isolated from nitrate- and toxic metal-contaminated subsurface sediment at the Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR) (Oak Ridge, TN, USA). Here, we report the complete genome sequence of this strain to provide genomic insight into its strategies for survival at this mixed-waste site.

Annotating ecological functions of environmental metagenomes is challenging due to a lack of specialized reference database and computational barriers. Here we present Ecological Function oriented Metagenomic Analysis Pipeline (EcoFun-MAP) for efficient analysis of shotgun metagenomes in the context of ecological functions. We manually curated refe...

Despite the dominance of Rhodanobacter species in the subsurface of the contaminated Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR) site, very little is known about the mechanisms underlying their adaptions to the various stressors present at ORR. Recently, multiple Rhodanobacter strains have been isolated from the ORR groundwater samples from several wells with vary...

Penetration testing is a popular and instantaneous technique for subsurface mapping, contaminant tracking, and the determination of soil characteristics. While the small footprint and reproducibility of cone penetrometer testing makes it an ideal method for in-situ subsurface investigations at contaminated sites, the effects to local shallow ground...

Reported here is a coding-complete genome sequence of a SARS CoV-2 variant obtained from raw wastewater samples at the University of Tennessee—Knoxville campus. This sequence provides insight into SARS CoV-2 variants that circulate on large college campuses but remain mostly undetected.

A major challenge of quantifying feedback between microbial communities and climate is the vast diversity of microbial communities and the intricacy of soil biogeochemical processes they mediate. We overcome this challenge by simplifying the representation of diverse enzyme functions from metagenomics data. We developed a dynamic allocation scheme...

A major challenge of quantifying feedback between microbial communities and climate is the vast diversity of microbial communities and the intricacy of soil biogeochemical processes they mediate. We overcome this challenge by simplifying the representation of diverse enzyme functions from metagenomics data. We developed a dynamic allocation scheme...

Microbial‐mediated nitrate removal from groundwater is widely recognized as the predominant mechanism for nitrate attenuation in contaminated aquifers and is largely dependent on the presence of a carbon‐bearing electron donor. The repeated exposure of a natural microbial community to an electron donor can result in the sustained ability of the com...

Our study goal was to investigate the impact of biocides and nanoparticles (NPs) on the microbial diversity in a hydraulic fracturing impacted stream. Biocides and NPs are known for their antimicrobial properties and controlling microbial growth. Previous work has shown that biocides can alter the microbial community composition of stream water and...

Microbial-mediated nitrate removal from groundwater is widely recognized as the predominant mechanism for nitrate attenuation in contaminated aquifers and is largely dependent on the presence of a carbon-bearing electron donor. The repeated exposure of a natural microbial community to an electron donor can result in the sustained ability of the com...

Hydraulic fracturing (HF), commonly called "fracking", uses a mixture of high-pressure water, sand, and chemicals to fracture rocks, releasing oil and gas. This process revolutionized the U.S. energy industry, as it gives access to resources that were previously unobtainable and now produces two-thirds of the total natural gas in the United States....

A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-021-00898-4.

Over the last century, leaps in technology for imaging, sampling, detection, high-throughput sequencing, and -omics analyses have revolutionized microbial ecology to enable rapid acquisition of extensive datasets for microbial communities across the ever-increasing temporal and spatial scales. The present challenge is capitalizing on our enhanced a...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Bacillus sp. strain EB106-08-02-XG196 was isolated from a high-nitrate- and heavy metal-contaminated site at the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee. We report the draft genome sequence of this strain to provide insights into the genomic basis for surviving in this unique environment.

Background Microbial electrolysis is a promising technology for converting aqueous wastes into hydrogen. However, substrate adaptability is an important feature, seldom documented in microbial electrolysis cells (MECs). In addition, the correlation between substrate composition and community structure has not been well established. This study used...

A nitrate- and metal-contaminated site at the Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR) was previously shown to contain the metal molybdenum (Mo) at picomolar concentrations. This potentially limits microbial nitrate reduction, as Mo is required by the enzyme nitrate reductase, which catalyzes the first step of nitrate removal. Enrichment for anaerobic nitrate-r...

Subsurface microbial communities mediate the transformation and fate of redox sensitive materials including organic matter, metals and radionuclides. Few studies have explored how changing geochemical conditions influence the composition of groundwater microbial communities over time. We temporally monitored alterations in abiotic forces on microbi...

The 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DWH) accident in the Gulf of Mexico had many unique aspects to it not seen in previous marine spills. Indeed, research related to the DWH response phase, Natural Resource Damage Assessment, Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI), National Academy of Sciences, US agencies: NOAA, EPA, Fish & Wildlife, DOE, and Coast Gu...

Marine microbial communities are a vital component of global carbon cycling, and numerous studies have shown that populations of petroleum-degrading bacteria are ubiquitous in the oceans. Few studies have attempted to distinguish all of the taxa that might contribute to petroleum biodegradation (including, e.g., heterotrophic and nondesignated micr...

The environmental surveys following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DWH) spill identified a variety of hydrocarbon-degrading microorganisms, and laboratory studies with field-collected water samples then demonstrated faster-than-expected hydrocarbon biodegradation rates at 5°C. Knowledge about microbial community composition, diversity, and functional...

One-third of the Earth’s fresh water comes from groundwater repositories. These terrestrial subsurface aquifers are an important source of our drinking water. Understanding the geochemistry and ecology of groundwater – including its microbial communities – is critical for keeping our water safe. A recent study sought to further understand a newly d...

Background Microbial electrolysis is a promising technology for converting aqueous wastes into hydrogen. Substrate adaptability is an important feature, seldom documented in Microbial Electrolysis Cells (MECs). The correlation between substrate composition and community structure has not been well established. This study used a MEC capable of produ...

The processing of sediment to accurately characterize the spatially-resolved depth profiles of geophysical and geochemical properties along with signatures of microbial density and activity remains a challenge especially in complex contaminated areas. This study processed cores from two sediment boreholes from background and contaminated core sedim...

Subsurface microbial communities mediate the transformation and fate of redox sensitive materials including organic matter, metals and radionuclides. Few studies have explored how changing geochemical conditions influence the composition of groundwater microbial communities over time. We temporally monitored alterations in abiotic forces on microbi...

Background: The newly defined superphylum Patescibacteria such as Parcubacteria (OD1) and Microgenomates (OP11) has been found to be prevalent in groundwater, sediment, lake, and other aquifer environments. Recently increasing attention has been paid to this diverse superphylum including > 20 candidate phyla (a large part of the candidate phylum r...

Deep-sea sediments are populated by diverse microbial communities that derive their nutritional requirements from the degradation of organic matter. Extracellular hydrolytic enzymes play a key role in the survival of microbes by enabling them to access and degrade complex organic compounds that are found in seafloor sediments. Despite their importa...

Whether the result of an oil well blowout, vessel collision or grounding, leaking pipeline, or other incident at sea, each marine oil spill will present unique circumstances and challenges. The oil type and properties, location, time of year, duration of spill, water depth, environmental conditions, affected biomes, potential human community impact...

Biocides used in unconventional oil and gas (UOG) practices, such as hydraulic fracturing, control microbial growth. Unwanted microbial growth can cause gas souring, pipeline clogging, and microbial-induced corrosion of equipment and transportation pipes. However, optimizing biocide use has not been a priority. Moreover, biocide efficacy has been q...

Unconventional oil and gas activity can affect pH, total organic carbon, and microbial communities in surface water, altering their ability to respond to new environmental and/or anthropogenic perturbations. These findings demonstrate that 2,2-dibromo-3-nitrilopropionamide (DBNPA), a common hydraulic fracturing (HF) biocide, affects microbial commu...

The processing of sediment to accurately characterize the spatially-resolved depth profiles of geophysical and geochemical properties along with signatures of microbial density and activity remains a challenge especially in complex contaminated environments. To provide site assessment for a larger study, we processed cores from two sediment borehol...

Understanding microbial community structure and function within the subsurface is critical to assessing overall quality and maintenance of groundwater; however, the factors that determine microbial community assembly, structure, and function in groundwater systems and their impact on water quality remains poorly understood. In this study, three sha...

The ability to link soil microbial diversity to soil processes requires technologies that differentiate active microbes from extracellular DNA and dormant cells. Here, we use BONCAT (bioorthogonal non-canonical amino acid tagging) to measure translationally active cells in soils. We compare the active population of two soil depths from Oak Ridge (T...

The occurrence of extraordinary wildfires has become more frequent over the past few years and raises concern regarding the economic and ecological consequences of these events. The recent ones in California (2018) almost overwhelmed fire control measures while leaving behind swaths of scorched land. Controlled burns are a viable option for fire ma...

The Caspian Sea, which is the largest landlocked body of water on the planet, receives substantial annual hydrocarbon input from anthropogenic sources (e.g., industry, agriculture, oil exploration, and extraction) and natural sources (e.g., mud volcanoes and oil seeps). The Caspian Sea also receives substantial amounts of runoff from agricultural a...

Plasmidomes have been typically studied in environments abundant in bacteria, and this is the first study to explore plasmids from an environment characterized by low cell density. We specifically target groundwater, a significant source of water for human/agriculture use. We used samples from a well-studied site and identified hundreds of circular...

Pollution is everywhere. Microbes are also everywhere, and many have the ability to degrade environmental contaminants. Understanding how these microbial communities work to degrade environmental contaminants will enable us to use these microbes to clean up the pollution. Understanding, monitoring, and controlling the environment with biological pr...

In situ groundwater bioremediation of hydrocarbons has been used for more than 40 years. Most strategies involve biostimulation; however, recently bioaugmentation have been used for dehalorespiration. Aquifer and contaminant profiles are critical to determining the feasibility and strategy for in situ groundwater bioremediation. Hydraulic conductiv...

Cometabolic bioremediation is probably the most underappreciated bioremediation strategy currently available. Cometabolism strategies stimulate only indigenous microbes with the ability to degrade the contaminant and cosubstrate, e.g., methane, propane, toluene, and others. This highly targeted stimulation insures that only those microbes that can...

Tropical ecosystems are an important sink for atmospheric CO2; however, plant growth is restricted by phosphorus (P) availability. Although soil microbiota facilitate organic P turnover and inorganic P mobilization, their role in carbon-phosphorus coupled processes remains poorly understood. To advance this topic, soils collected from four sites re...

In the recent article by Paradis et al. (2018), an error was made when developing a conceptual model and an analytical solution to describe the one-dimensional displacement of the center of mass of a non-reactive tracer during a single-well injection, drift, and extraction test (push-pull test).

Subsurface environments contain a large proportion of planetary microbial biomass and harbor diverse communities responsible for mediating biogeochemical cycles important to groundwater used by human society for consumption, irrigation, agriculture, and industry. Within the saturated zone, capillary fringe, and vadose zones, microorganisms can resi...

Polyfluorinated benzoic acids (PBAs) can be used as non-reactive tracers to characterize reactive mass transport mechanisms in groundwater. The use of PBAs as non-reactive tracers assumes that their reactivities are negligible. If this assumption is not valid, PBAs may not be appropriate to use as non-reactive tracers. In this study, the reactivity...

The ability to link soil microbial diversity to soil processes requires technologies that differentiate active subpopulations of microbes from so-called relic DNA and dormant cells. Measures of microbial activity based on various techniques including DNA labelling has suggested that most cells in soils are inactive, a fact that has been difficult t...

Unconventional oil and gas (UOG) extraction, also known as hydraulic fracturing, is becoming more prevalent with the increasing use and demand for natural gas; however, the full extent of its environmental impacts is still unknown. Here we measured physicochemical properties and bacterial community composition of sediment samples taken from twenty-...