The full-scale anaerobic digestion microbiome is represented by specific marker populations

Abstract

Anaerobic digestion is a well-established microbial-based technology for the treatment of organic waste streams and subsequent biogas recovery. A robust and versatile microbial community to ensure overall stability of the process is essential. Four full-scale anaerobic digestion plants were followed for one year to link operational characteristics with microbial community composition and structure. Similarities between digesters, community dynamics and co-occurrence between bacteria and archaea within each digester were analysed. Free ammonia concentration (>200 mg N L−1) and conductivity (>30 mS cm−1) hindered acetoclastic methanogenesis by Methanosaetaceae. Thus, methanogenesis was pushed to the hydrogenotrophic pathway carried out by Methanobacteriales and Methanomicrobiales. Firmicutes dominated the overall bacterial community in each of the digesters (>50%), however, principal coordinate analysis of Bray-Curtis indices showed that each of the four digesters hosted a unique microbial community. The uniqueness of this community was related to two phylotypes belonging to the Syntrophomonas genus (Phy32 and Phy34) and to one unclassified bacterium (Phy2), which could both be considered marker populations in the community. A clear differentiation in co-occurrence of methanogens with several bacteria was observed between the different digesters. Our results demonstrated that full-scale anaerobic digestion plants show constant dynamics and co-occurrence patterns in function of time, but are unique in terms of composition, related to the presence of marker populations.