Changes in microbial community composition and geochemistry during excavation shaft and galleries of the Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory

Amano, Yuki; Sasaki, Yoshito; Nanjo, Isao*; Amamiya, Hiroki; Mizuno, Takashi; Ise, Kotaro; Yoshikawa, Hideki

no journal, , 

Continuous monitoring of groundwater chemistry of the boreholes during the facility construction indicated that the salinity around 140 m have not changed from the beggining to date. Water pressures within the area several tens to hundreds meter from the shafts also went down in process of time. Regarding the chemical disturbance in the area, the redox potencial of the groundwaters in the monitoring boreholes showed reducing condition nevertheless the gallery is in oxidized condition. However, microbial community structure changed considerably from the beggining to date. These results indicate that microbial redox reaction could contribute to maintain of reducing conditions in the groundwater system, despite of hydrochemical disturbance caused by facility construction.