Microbial Community Structure of Waste Water Treatment Plants in Different Seasons

Abstract

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) have different treatment effects during different seasons due to changes in water quality and temperature. To understand bacterial community structure and diversity dynamics in the WWTPs, this study employed high-throughput sequencing technology during winter and summer. A total of 60 activated sludge samples were collected in five WWTPs in Beijing with different treatment processes in summer (temperature=28℃±2℃, water temperature=24.9℃±1.1℃) and winter (temperature=0℃±3℃, water temperature=16.8℃±1.3℃). The relative abundances of dominant bacterial genera in activated sludge varied significantly between the WWTPs but microbial community structure was typically similar between different treatment units (i.e., the anaerobic tank, anoxic tank, and aerobic tank) at each WWTP. At the same time, different bacteria dominated in winter and summer, when the relative abundance of SJA-15, Ferruginibacter, and Blasocatellaceae was 6.07%, 4.50%, and 4.44% respectively, when the relative abundance of Nitrospira, Methylotenera, and RBG-13-54-9 in winter was 10.17%, 3.96%, and 3.28%, respectively. Correlation analysis showed that temperature, total nitrogen (TN), NH4+-N, total phosphorus (TP), and chemical oxygen demand (COD) were the main environmental factors affecting microbial community structure, of which temperature had the greatest effect on species composition followed by TN. Furthermore, a predictive analysis of functional enzymes indicated that the abundance of key enzymes involved in the nitrogen cycle in the activated sludge of WWTPs is higher in winter than that in summer. These results show that temperature, water quality, and treatment process affect bacterial community structure (i.e., dominance and abundance) in WWTP activated sludge.