Ecological Insights Into Community Interactions, Assembly Processes and Function in the Denitrifying Phosphorus Removal Activated Sludge Driven by Phosphorus Sources

Abstract

The microbial characteristics in the wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) strongly affect their optimal performance and functional stability. However, a cognitive gap remains regarding the characteristics of the microbial community driven by phosphorus sources, especially co-occurrence patterns and community assembly based on phylogenetic group. In this study, 59 denitrifying phosphorus removal (DPR) activated sludge samples were cultivated with phosphorus sources. The results suggested that homogeneous selection accounted for the largest proportion that ranged from 35.82 to 64.48%. Deterministic processes dominated in 12 microbial groups (bins): Candidatus_Accumulibacter and Pseudomonas in these bins belonged to phosphate-accumulating organisms (PAOs). Network analysis revealed that species interactions were intensive in cyclic nucleoside phosphate-influenced microbiota. Function prediction indicated that cyclic nucleoside phosphates increased the activity of enzymes related to denitrification and phosphorus metabolism and increased the α-diversity of microorganism but decreased the diversity of metabolic function. Based on these results, it was assumed that cyclic nucleoside phosphates, rather than inorganic phosphates, are the most available phosphorus source for majority microorganisms in DPR activated sludge. The study revealed the important role of phosphorus source in the construction and assembly of microbial communities and provided new insights about pollutant removal from WWTPs.

Unveiling the ecological significance of phosphorus fractions in shaping bacterial and archaeal beta diversity in mesotrophic lakes

“…Moreover, for the pure effect, we found that the Pi fractions had a higher explanation than Po fractions for bacterial beta diversity ( Figure 6 ). As an essential component of nucleic acids, lipids or storage energy molecules, Pi can substantially influence the shaping of microbial community structure and ecological patterns or processes ( Zheng et al, 2021 ). As such, this finding largely stresses the importance of Pi in shaping bacterial community structures, which is concordant with previous findings on aquatic bacteria ( Yuan et al, 2022 ) or phytoplankton ( Guo et al, 2022 ).…”

“…Likewise, such major role of deterministic processes has also been observed in soils ( Moroenyane et al, 2016 ) and rivers ( Vilmi et al, 2020 ). Similarly, phosphorus fractions contain large amounts of organic or inorganic P, providing essential nutrients for microbial growth ( Zheng et al, 2021 ). Such nutrients can alter even biodiversity and its relationship with temperature in large-scale field experiments ( Wang et al, 2016b ).…”

“…Compared to traditional beta diversity index like Bray–Curtis dissimilarity, partitioning beta diversity can provide a valuable fresh perspective to address the underlying causes of community variation in response to environmental changes ( Viana et al, 2016 ; García-Navas et al, 2022 ). Specifically, phosphorus, as a limiting nutrient, acts as environmental filtering to constrain biological succession ( Zheng et al, 2021 ) and can also drive community variation by influencing species turnover or nestedness. For example, species turnover dominates bacterial total beta diversity in freshwater ecosystems, but is largely constrained by water total P, substantially altering the water-depth pattern of bacterial community variation ( Wu et al, 2020 ; Yuan et al, 2022 ).…”

Nitrogen and Phosphorus Discriminate the Assembly Processes of Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic Algae in an Agricultural Drainage Receiving Lake

“…Previous studies have provided theories, niche-based theory and neutral theory, for microorganism gathering (i.e., assembly) [10]. Traditional niche-based theories hypothesize that community selection is constrained by environmental conditions, species characteristics, and interspecies interactions [11,12]. In contrast, neutral theory assumes that community structures are independent of species traits and governed by drift, dispersal, random speciation, death, and extinction [13].…”