Characteristics of Bacterial and Archaeal Communities in Microbial‐Enhanced Constructed Wetlands under NaCl Stress

Abstract

AbstractHigh salt concentrations can restrict or inhibit microorganism activity, which can detrimentally influence pollutant degradation. In this study, intertidal wetland sediments (IWS) are introduced into constructed wetlands (CWs) as sources of microorganisms. The richness and evenness of bacterial and archaeal microbial communities in the presence of 150 × 10−3 m NaCl are evaluated by high‐throughput sequencing. The distinction of dominant functional microorganisms in CWs with and without IWS is also analyzed. Anaerolineales and thermomicrobia are the dominant microorganisms in IWS–CWs in the saline condition and are related to methane production. The abundance of Alphaproteobacteria, Myxococcales, and Xanthomonadales, related to dehydrogenation, is relatively high in IWS–CWs. The addition of IWS induces further production of Anaerolineaceae and Geobacteraceae, which is positively correlated with the phosphorus‐accumulating and sulfate‐reducing stages. The dominant archaea phyla in IWS–CWs in the saline condition are Thaumarchaeota (87.5%) and Euryarchaeota (12.2%), which are involved in ammonia‐oxidizing and methane‐producing processes, respectively. These functional microbial communities are beneficial to the degradation and transformation of pollutants in the CWs. Thus, IWS with various halophilic and pollutant‐degrading microorganisms can be considered effective microbial sources to enhance the pollutant removal abilities of CWs.