Comparison of eco-improvement on constructed wetlands with nano zero valent iron introduction under different levels of PFOA stress: Perspectives on plant, microbe, and PFOA removal

Abstract

The ecological hazards of perfluoro octanoic acid (PFOA, a typical perfluoroalkyl substances) have been continually reported in constructed wetlands (CWs) for wastewater treatment. In present study, nano zero valent iron (nZVI) was adopted to alleviate PFOA stress at different levels (1 and 10 mg/L) in CWs. It was revealed that the effects of nZVI on specific ecological parameters varied at different PFOA dosages. PFOA influenced plant photosynthetic and antioxidant parameters with significant concentration-dependence. NZVI addition caused more obvious promotion of chlorophyll (25.30–31.84 %) and reduction of catalase (172.64 %) and malondialdehyde (83.01 %) with 10 mg/L PFOA exposure. For microbe, nZVI was prone to stimulate enzyme activities under 1 mg/L PFOA, in which the relative activity of dehydrogenase, urease, phosphatase, and four nitrogen cycling enzymes increased by 86.25–375.56 %, 43.10–71.16 %, 1.52–29.38 %, and 4.49–315.18 %. However, nZVI caused more abundant of functional bacteria (like nitrifying bacteria and phosphorus-accumulating organisms) and function genes (like amoA, hao, and ppx) with PFOA at 10 mg/L. On the whole, changes in bacterial community confirmed the enhancement potential of nZVI on ammonium and phosphorous removal. PFOA removal at 10 mg/L was higher compared to 1 mg/L, resulting from higher abundance of class Gammaproteobacteria, and nZVI addition further contributed to the highest removal efficiency (73.54 %). This study provided evidence on nZVI as a possible manner for optimizing eco-function in CWs with PFOA stress at different levels.