Abstract
Effect of ecological variables on community assembly of heterotrophic bacteria at eight full‐scale and two pilot‐scale activated sludge wastewater treatment plants (AS‐WWTPs) were explored by pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA gene amplicons. In total, 39 samples covering a range of abiotic factors spread over space and time were analyzed. A core bacterial community of 24 families detected in at least six of the eight AS‐WWTPs was defined. In addition to the core families, plant‐specific families (observed at <50% AS‐WWTPs) were found to be also important in the community structure. Observed beta diversity was partitioned with respect to ecological variables. Specifically, the following variables were considered: influent wastewater characteristics, season (winter vs. summer), process operations (conventional, oxidation ditch, and sequence batch reactor), reactor sizes (pilot‐scale vs. full‐scale reactors), chemical stresses defined by ozonation of return activated sludge, interannual variation, and geographical locations. Among the assessed variables, influent wastewater characteristics and geographical locations contributed more in explaining the differences between AS‐WWTP bacterial communities with a maximum of approximately 26% of the observed variations. Partitioning of beta diversity is necessary to interpret the inherent variability in microbial community assembly and identify the driving forces at play in engineered microbial ecosystem.
Highlights
Activated sludge (AS) system employed in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is among the world’s largest biotechnological processes
As such, quantifying how the variations in the environmental or operational variables influence the microbial community composition remains a fundamental goal of wastewater microbiology
Valentín-Vargas, Toro-Labrador, and Massol-Deyá (2012) monitored over 1 year the bacterial community compositions of two geographically distinct AS wastewater treatment systems of different sizes, and they determined that the largest bioreactor had a less dynamic composition
Summary
Activated sludge (AS) system employed in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is among the world’s largest biotechnological processes. Valentín-Vargas, Toro-Labrador, and Massol-Deyá (2012) monitored over 1 year the bacterial community compositions of two geographically distinct AS wastewater treatment systems of different sizes, and they determined that the largest bioreactor had a less dynamic composition. These studies highlighted the importance of environmental factors on bacterial community assembly, a systematic quantification of the abiotic parameters contribution on the species composition and distribution of bacterial communities remains a main interest in the applied microbiology. To quantify the impact of the different environmental variables in determining bacterial community compositions, 39 biomass samples from eight full-scale AS-WWTPs and two pilot-scales AS-WWTPs were characterized using high-throughput pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA gene amplicon. The results generated from the combination of these studies enabled us to explore a range of environmental variables, which could potentially explain observed bacterial population assemblies and their response to abiotic changes
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