Operational factors and microbial interactions affect the ecology in anaerobic digestion systems. From 12 lab-scale reactors operated under distinct engineering conditions, bacterial communities were found driven by temperature, while archaeal communities by both temperature and substrate properties. Combining the bacterial and archaeal community clustering patterns led to five sample groups (ambient, mesophilic low-solid-substrate, mesophilic, mesophilic co-digestion and thermophilic) for co-occurrence network analysis. Network topological properties were associated with substrate characteristics and hydrolysis-methanogenesis balance. The hydrolysis efficiency correlated (p < 0.05) with clustering coefficient positively and with normalized betweenness negatively. The influent particulate COD ratio and the relative differential hydrolysis-methanogenesis efficiency (Defficiency) correlated negatively with the average path length (p < 0.05). Individual genera’s topological properties showed more connector genera in thermophilic network, representing stronger inter-module communication. Individual genera’s normalized degree and betweenness revealed that lower-abundance genera (as low as 0.1%) could perform central hub roles and communication roles, maintaining the stability and functionality of the microbial community.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.