Spatial and temporal variability of bacterial communities within a combined sewer system

Abstract

This study describes the temporal and spatial variability of bacterial communities within a combined sewer system in England. Sampling was conducted over 9 months in a sewer system with intensive monitoring of hydraulic conditions. The bacterial communities were characterized by 16S rRNA gene‐targeted terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. These data were related to the hydraulic data as well as the sample type, location, and time. Temporal and spatial variation was observed between and within wastewater communities and biofilm communities. The bacterial communities in biofilm were distinctly different from the communities in wastewater and exhibited greater spatial variation, while the wastewater communities exhibited variability between different months of sampling. This study highlights the variation of bacterial communities between biofilm and wastewater, and has shown both spatial and temporal variations in bacterial communities in combined sewers. The temporal variation is of interest for in‐sewer processes, for example, sewer odor generation, as field measurements for these processes are often carried out over short durations and may therefore not capture the influence of this temporal variation of the bacterial communities.

Variations in microbiome composition of sewer biofilms due to ferrous and ferric iron dosing

“…A spatial variation of selected microbial species and activity of an untreated biofilm was found using a Robbins device setup, connected in parallel to a wastewater force main (Mohanakrishnan et al, 2009). Jensen et al (2016) in their study performed direct sampling in different sections of a sewer system and showed the spatial and temporal variability of bacterial communities. However, direct studies of bacterial communities in biofilms along the length of sewer force mains and how these communities respond to different stimuli are still largely lacking.…”