Certain types of bacteria, called Burkholderia and Geobacter, are often found in soil that’s been polluted with mercury, and they have special genes that help them survive and clean up the poison — so they’re probably key players in these dirty soils.

The bacteria Burkholderia and Pseudomonas are more common in soils with higher levels of total mercury and methylmercury.

Soils with long-term mercury contamination may also have more bacteria that can resist antibiotics, because the same mechanisms that help with mercury resistance might also help with antibiotic resistance.

In places where the soil has been polluted with mercury for a long time, there are fewer types of bacteria living in the soil, especially when the pollution is really bad—but fungi don’t seem to be as affected, which means bacteria are more sensitive to mercury than fungi.

Microbes in mercury-contaminated soil have more genes related to stress response, moving substances across cell membranes, and phosphate metabolism compared to less contaminated soils.

Soils with mercury contamination have many genes that help microbes resist antibiotics and toxic substances, regardless of how much mercury is present or the time of year.