Heterotrophic Community‐Level Physiological Profiles of Domestic Wastewater Following Treatment by Small Constructed Subsurface Flow Wetlands

Abstract

Seasonal treatment performance of small-surface flow wetlands was evaluated during their second operational year and compared with community-level physiological profiles (CLPP) of the heterotrophic bacterial community obtained from sole-carbon source utilization patterns in BIOLOG GN (Haywood, California) microplates. The CLPP patterns varied significantly by season, indicating reduced functional diversity in the heterotrophic community during warmer months of active plant growth (April through October). Principal component analysis (PCA) suggested that the functional community differed in planted versus unplanted wetlands during the growing season. Wetlands generally improved wastewater quality; however, treatment performance was reduced in the second year. Despite differences in the heterotrophic community suggested by CLPP, treatment efficiency with respect to removal of five-day biochemical oxygen demand or reduction in fecal indicator organisms generally was not significantly changed as a function of growing season or plant treatment. Water Environ. Res., 76, 468 (2004).

Responses of microbial activity and community metabolic profiles to plant functional group diversity in a full-scale constructed wetland

“…Recently, Ros et al (2008) have found a very low diversity within the Biolog plates. Nevertheless, the communitylevel physiological profile (CLPP) technique has been widely used in part because it is simple using an automated measuring apparatus, and the CLPP procedure measures the community structure of the bacteria that are able to grow in the culture conditions of the Ecoplate (Buyer et al, 2002;Garland et al, 1997) and has been shown in some cases to be as sensitive as or more sensitive than measuring microbial biomass and respiration (Johnson et al, 1998), it, therefore, has been used to detect heterotrophic microbial communities among and within wastewater-treatment systems (Collins et al, 2004;Hadwin et al, 2006;Hench et al, 2004;Nurk et al, 2005;Osem et al, 2007;Victorio et al, 1996;Weber et al, 2008).…”

Microbial Community Assessment in Wetlands for Water Pollution Control: Past, Present, and Future Outlook

“…That being said, there are relatively few microbial community function methodologies available for TWs. Hench et al [28] first used community level physiological profiling, borrowing from soil scientists and the development of micro-titre plates for soil bacteria differentiation [29,30]. It was, however, not until recently (for example see Button et al [19]) that the carbon sources on the plate were truly considered as measures for organic degradation and used in data interpretation and TW optimization recommendations.…”

Decomposition of Standing Litter Biomass in Newly Constructed Wetlands Associated with Direct Effects of Sediment and Water Characteristics and the Composition and Activity of the Decomposer Community Using Phragmites australis as a Single Standard Substrate

“…For each basin, the top 5 cm of five sediment samples taken in June 2014 were pooled together to get a representative sample per basin and stored at 4°C until further processing the next day. Sediment samples were diluted with sterilized demi water to obtain a dilution of 1:7, shaken by hand for a minute to detach bacteria from sediment particles and centrifuged at 1000 g for 15 min, after which the supernatant was diluted with sterilized demi water to a final dilution of 1:87 (adapted from Hench et al 2004). BIOLOG plate wells were inoculated with 150 μl bacterial suspension and incubated in the dark at 15°C to simulate natural conditions.…”