Seasonal bacterial community succession in four typical wastewater treatment plants: correlations between core microbes and process performance

Abstract

To understand the seasonal variation of the activated sludge (AS) bacterial community and identify core microbes in different wastewater processing systems, seasonal AS samples were taken from every biological treatment unit within 4 full-scale wastewater treatment plants. These plants adopted A2/O, A/O and oxidation ditch processes and were active in the treatment of different types and sources of wastewater, some domestic and others industrial. The bacterial community composition was analyzed using high-throughput sequencing technology. The correlations among microbial community structure, dominant microbes and process performance were investigated. Seasonal variation had a stronger impact on the AS bacterial community than any variation within different wastewater treatment system. Facing seasonal variation, the bacterial community within the oxidation ditch process remained more stable those in either the A2/O or A/O processes. The core genera in domestic wastewater treatment systems were Nitrospira, Caldilineaceae, Pseudomonas and Lactococcus. The core genera in the textile dyeing and fine chemical industrial wastewater treatment systems were Nitrospira, Thauera and Thiobacillus.

Impacts of solids retention time and antibiotic loading in activated sludge systems on secondary effluent water quality and microbial community structure

“…(), the seasonal monitoring study in Zhang et al. (), and also with the aforementioned increase in richness and diversity observed for longer SRTs in the current study. Consistent with the beta diversity results in Figure , the taxa bar plot showed distinct differences in microbial community structure for the 7‐day SRT samples in phase 1 (almost exclusively Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes) versus phase 2 (aforementioned “emerging phyla”).…”

“…Zhang et al. () also observed significant seasonal impacts on microbial community structure in activated sludge systems. Again, there were no apparent differences in phylum‐level composition for the 7‐day SRTs in phase 2, regardless of antibiotic concentration.…”

“…The 30‐day SRT was then restored, and the authors were able to document restoration of microbial community structure (to some degree) and system performance with respect to chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen, and total phosphorus removal. Additional studies are still needed to identify the “core microbiota” (Caporaso et al., ) of activated sludge systems, which are likely to be critical for carbon and nitrogen cycling (Zhang et al., ), and to illustrate how changes in water quality (e.g., antibiotic concentrations) or operational conditions (e.g., SRT) might impact the microbial community. Statistically significant deviations from the core microbiota or the emergence of previously rare taxa might be indicative of operational upsets and imminent deterioration of process performance, assuming natural shifts in microbial community structure (e.g., due to seasonal changes) are considered (Zhang et al., ).…”

Metagenomics Study of the Microbes in Constructed Wetland System Treating Sewage

“…They produce extracellular polymeric substances that support biomass production [15]. Hyphomicrobiaceae positively correlates with NH4 N removal [20] and removal of micropollutants in ecological WWTP. Pirellulaceae acts as soil indicator microbe, strongly correlated with soil pH and increases at neutral pH.…”

Effectiveness of wastewater treatment systems in removing microbial agents: a systematic review

“…In recent years, increased research has been done on wastewater treatment using simple, low-cost, easy-to-use methods in developing countries [8,9]. Systems and processes such as activated sludge, aerated lagoons, stabilization ponds, natural and synthetic wetlands, trickling filters, rotating biological contactors (RBCs) have been used for wastewater treatment and removal of physical, chemical and biological contaminants [10,11]. Among different contaminants of wastewater, microbial agents becoming increasingly important and their removal efficiency should be reported in different wastewater treatment systems [12,13].…”