Characterization of anaerobic bacterial populations putatively involved in the degradation of Chlorine pesticides in mangrove soils of Guadeloupe (Lesser Antilles).

In Guadeloupe mangrove soils, anaerobic bacterial communities show strong inter-site heterogeneity, with soil chlordecone ranging from <5 to 118.8 g kg-1 across transects.

• Why it matters: Mangroves at the land–sea interface near contaminated agriculture may be exposed to chlordecone, but the anaerobic community composition linked to its degradation has been poorly characterized.
• What they did: Bacterial communities were profiled across three sites (one uncontaminated and two contaminated) along coastal-to-agricultural transects, using FAPROTAX and KEGG-based functional inference.
• The result: Across sites, 60–90% of detected taxa relate to aromatic-compound degradation and 5–15% to nitrification-associated genera; community diversity was not directly correlated with chlordecone, while Dehalogenimonas and Desulfomonile (plus Burkholderia) indicate vitamin B12 biosynthesis pathways.

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