Abstract

Surface material from 17 ancient copper mines (15th to beginning 19^th century) of the Southeast Harz region (Germany) had been investigated by 16S-RNA NGS profilings. It was found that the places are marked by different quantities of dominant soil bacterial phyla as Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria and Verrucomicrobia and by the rarely appearing types (Operational Taxonomical Units OTUs, mostly genus level), which had been found in single samples or in sample groups, exclusively. Some of them could be assigned to sample-related associations, what supports the assumption of a special character and a long-term “genetic memory” of bacteria communities on the ancient mining places.

Keywords:Microbial diversity; Soil; Historical mines; Microorganism signatures