Treatment of polluted landscape lake water and community analysis of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria in constructed wetland

Abstract

Three lab-scale horizontal subsurface flow constructed wetlands (HSSF CWs) were installed to demonstrate the use of constructed wetlands as a viable low-cost treatment option to purify the polluted scenery water. The goals of this study were to determine the effectiveness of the wetland treatment technology in reducing contaminants in polluted natural water body and to characterize bacterial composition present in 3 constructed wetlands. Water samples were collected periodically for 12 months from three wetlands to determine the efficiency of the treatment system in removal of chemical pollutants. The reduction by the treatment was greatest for chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen and total phosphorus, but the removal of nutrients obviously varied with seasons. Plant uptake was highly responsible for nitrogen and phosphorus removal. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) was used to study the diversity of microbial community in the constructed wetland. Changes in the total bacterial community and ammonia-oxidizing bacterial composition were examined by DGGE and sequencing of polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-amplified fragments of the gene carrying the ammonia monooxygenase subunit A gene (amoA) recovered from matrix samples and DGGE bands. DGGE analysis of wetlands samples revealed that seasonal change had an effect on the diversity and composition of microbial communities in constructed wetlands. The sequence analysis showed ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) in constructed wetlands were uncultivable and the population of AOB had a higher percentage of Nitrosomonas-like sequences from wetlands, while no Nitrosospira-like sequences were found.