Effects of freeze-thaw intensities on N2O release from subsurface wastewater infiltration system

Abstract

Subsurface wastewater infiltration system (SWIS) is a low-investment and cost-effective wastewater treatment technology. Nitrous oxide (N2O), an important greenhouse and ozone-depleting gas, is a major by-product of biological denitrification processes within SWIS. Although SWIS has been widely applied in varying zones, until now, whether and how periodical freeze-thaw cycles (FTCs) occurring in aerobic layers affect N2O release still remain unclear? In this study, two runs were arranged, which covered two freeze-thaw (FT) intensities of − 5 °C/5 °C and − 15 °C/5 °C, respectively. An in-situ simulation system of SWIS was carried out to monitor N2O release and microbial community structure in different profiles. The result revealed that raising FT intensity decreased the rate of nitrogen removal of SWIS. Average removal rate of TN under strong FTCs was 88.65–88.97%, which was 1.32–2.47% lower than that under weak FTCs conditions. In addition, a positive correlation was found between FT numbers and N2O release. The contribution of anaerobic zone increased from 29.24% to 75.16% with extending the FT cycles from 1 to 9. High-throughput sequencing results showed that different FT intensities had distinct effects on microbial communities. Euryarchaeota abundance increased significantly under strong FT treatment, while Proteobacteria abundance sharply decreased from 49.5% to 7.6% at day 27 of stable operation. PCA analysis shows that bacterial community composition of samples treated with weak FT and CK is similar. While significant differences in sample composition were found between strong and weak FT treatments, which was the main reason resulting in different N2O release patterns.