Dataset Information

Association of biodiversity with the rates of micropollutant biotransformations among full-scale wastewater treatment plant communities.

ABSTRACT: Biodiversities can differ substantially among different wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) communities. Whether differences in biodiversity translate into differences in the provision of particular ecosystem services, however, is under active debate. Theoretical considerations predict that WWTP communities with more biodiversity are more likely to contain strains that have positive effects on the rates of particular ecosystem functions, thus resulting in positive associations between those two variables. However, if WWTP communities were sufficiently biodiverse to nearly saturate the set of possible positive effects, then positive associations would not occur between biodiversity and the rates of particular ecosystem functions. To test these expectations, we measured the taxonomic biodiversity, functional biodiversity, and rates of 10 different micropollutant biotransformations for 10 full-scale WWTP communities. We have demonstrated that biodiversity is positively associated with the rates of specific, but not all, micropollutant biotransformations. Thus, one cannot assume whether or how biodiversity will associate with the rate of any particular micropollutant biotransformation. We have further demonstrated that the strongest positive association is between biodiversity and the collective rate of multiple micropollutant biotransformations. Thus, more biodiversity is likely required to maximize the collective rates of multiple micropollutant biotransformations than is required to maximize the rate of any individual micropollutant biotransformation. We finally provide evidence that the positive associations are stronger for rare micropollutant biotransformations than for common micropollutant biotransformations. Together, our results are consistent with the hypothesis that differences in biodiversity can indeed translate into differences in the provision of particular ecosystem services by full-scale WWTP communities.

SUBMITTER: Johnson DR

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4277575 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Association of biodiversity with the rates of micropollutant biotransformations among full-scale wastewater treatment plant communities.

Johnson David R DR Helbling Damian E DE Lee Tae Kwon TK Park Joonhong J Fenner Kathrin K Kohler Hans-Peter E HP Ackermann Martin M

Applied and environmental microbiology 20141114 2

Biodiversities can differ substantially among different wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) communities. Whether differences in biodiversity translate into differences in the provision of particular ecosystem services, however, is under active debate. Theoretical considerations predict that WWTP communities with more biodiversity are more likely to contain strains that have positive effects on the rates of particular ecosystem functions, thus resulting in positive associations between those two va ...[more]

PMID: 25398862

Similar Datasets

Project description:Wastewater treatment plants use a variety of bioreactor types and configurations to remove organic matter and nutrients. Little is known regarding the effects of different configurations and within-plant immigration on microbial community dynamics. Previously, we found that the structure of ammonia-oxidizing bacterial (AOB) communities in a full-scale dispersed growth activated sludge bioreactor correlated strongly with levels of NO2- entering the reactor from an upstream trickling filter (Wells et al 2009). Here, to further examine this puzzling association, we profile within-plant microbial biogeography (spatial variation) and test the hypothesis that substantial microbial immigration occurs along a transect (raw influent, trickling filter biofilm, trickling filter effluent, and activated sludge) at the same full-scale wastewater treatment plant. AOB amoA gene abundance increased >30-fold between influent and trickling filter effluent concomitant with NO2- production, indicating unexpected growth and activity of AOB within the trickling filter. Nitrosomonas europaea was the dominant AOB phylotype in trickling filter biofilm and effluent, while a distinct ‘Nitrosomonas-like’ lineage dominated in activated sludge. Prior time series indicated that this ‘Nitrosomonas-like’ lineage was dominant when NO2- levels in the trickling filter effluent (i.e., activated sludge influent) were low, while N. europaea became dominant in the activated sludge when NO2- levels were high. This is consistent with the hypothesis that NO2- production may co-occur with biofilm sloughing, releasing N. europaea from the trickling filter into the activated sludge bioreactor. Phylogenetic microarray (PhyloChip) analyses revealed significant spatial variation in taxonomic diversity, including a large excess of methanogens in the trickling filter relative to activated sludge and attenuation of Enterobacteriaceae across the transect, and demonstrated transport of a highly diverse microbial community via the trickling filter effluent to the activated sludge bioreactor. Our results provide compelling evidence that substantial immigration between coupled process units occurs and may exert significant influence over microbial community dynamics within staged bioreactors.

Project description:In this study, we investigated whether bacterial community composition in full-scale wastewater treatment bioreactors can be better explained by niche- or neutral-based theory (deterministic or stochastic) and whether bioreactor design (continuous flow versus fill and draw) affected community assembly. Four wastewater treatment facilities (one with quadruplicated continuous-flow bioreactors, two with one continuous-flow bioreactor each, and one with triplicate fill-and-draw bioreactors) were investigated. Bioreactor community composition was characterized by sequencing of PCR-amplified 16S rRNA gene fragments. Replicate bioreactors at the same wastewater treatment facility had largely reproducible (i.e., deterministic) bacterial community composition, although bacterial community composition in continuous-flow bioreactors was significantly more reproducible (P < 0.001) than in fill-and-draw bioreactors (Bray-Curtis dissimilarity, μ = 0.48 ± 0.06 versus 0.58 ± 0.08). Next, we compared our results to previously used indirect methods for distinguishing between deterministic and stochastic community assembly mechanisms. Synchronicity was observed in the bacterial community composition among bioreactors within the same metropolitan region, consistent with deterministic community assembly. Similarly, a null model-based analysis also indicated that all wastewater bioreactor communities were controlled by deterministic factors and that continuous-flow bioreactors were significantly more deterministic (P < 0.001) than fill-and-draw bioreactors (nearest-taxon index, μ = 3.8 ± 0.6 versus 2.7 ± 0.8). Our results indicate that bacterial community composition in wastewater treatment bioreactors is better explained by deterministic community assembly theory; simultaneously, our results validate previously used but indirect methods to quantify whether microbial communities were assembled via deterministic or stochastic mechanisms. IMPORTANCE Understanding the mechanisms of bacterial community assembly is one of the grand challenges of microbial ecology. In environmental systems, this challenge is exacerbated because replicate experiments are typically impossible; that is, microbial ecologists cannot fabricate multiple field-scale experiments of identical, natural ecosystems. Our results directly demonstrate that deterministic mechanisms are more prominent than stochastic mechanisms in the assembly of wastewater treatment bioreactor communities. Our results also suggest that wastewater treatment bioreactor design is pertinent, such that the imposition of feast-famine conditions (i.e., fill-and-draw bioreactors) nudge bacterial community assembly more toward stochastic mechanisms than the imposition of stringent nutrient limitation (i.e., continuous-flow bioreactors). Our research also validates the previously used indirect methods (synchronous community dynamics and an application of a null model) for characterizing the relative importance of deterministic versus stochastic mechanisms of community assembly.

Project description:BackgroundWastewater treatment plants are an essential part of maintaining the health and safety of the general public. However, they are also an anthropogenic source of antibiotic resistance genes. In this study, we characterized the resistome, the distribution of classes 1-3 integron-integrase genes (intI1, intI2, and intI3) as mobile genetic element biomarkers, and the bacterial and phage community compositions in the North End Sewage Treatment Plant in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Samples were collected from raw sewage, returned activated sludge, final effluent, and dewatered sludge. A total of 28 bacterial and viral metagenomes were sequenced over two seasons, fall and winter. Integron-integrase genes, the 16S rRNA gene, and the coliform beta-glucuronidase gene were also quantified during this time period.ResultsBacterial classes observed above 1% relative abundance in all treatments were Actinobacteria (39.24% ± 0.25%), Beta-proteobacteria (23.99% ± 0.16%), Gamma-proteobacteria (11.06% ± 0.09%), and Alpha-proteobacteria (9.18 ± 0.04%). Families within the Caudovirales order: Siphoviridae (48.69% ± 0.10%), Podoviridae (23.99% ± 0.07%), and Myoviridae (19.94% ± 0.09%) were the dominant phage observed throughout the NESTP. The most abundant bacterial genera (in terms of average percent relative abundance) in influent, returned activated sludge, final effluent, and sludge, respectively, includes Mycobacterium (37.4%, 18.3%, 46.1%, and 7.7%), Acidovorax (8.9%, 10.8%, 5.4%, and 1.3%), and Polaromonas (2.5%, 3.3%, 1.4%, and 0.4%). The most abundant class of antibiotic resistance in bacterial samples was tetracycline resistance (17.86% ± 0.03%) followed by peptide antibiotics (14.24% ± 0.03%), and macrolides (10.63% ± 0.02%). Similarly, the phage samples contained a higher prevalence of macrolide (30.12% ± 0.30%), peptide antibiotic (10.78% ± 0.13%), and tetracycline (8.69% ± 0.11%) resistance. In addition, intI1 was the most abundant integron-integrase gene throughout treatment (1.14 × 104 gene copies/mL) followed by intI3 (4.97 × 103 gene copies/mL) while intI2 abundance remained low (6.4 × 101 gene copies/mL).ConclusionsWastewater treatment successfully reduced the abundance of bacteria, DNA phage and antibiotic resistance genes although many antibiotic resistance genes remained in effluent and biosolids. The presence of integron-integrase genes throughout treatment and in effluent suggests that antibiotic resistance genes could be actively disseminating resistance between both environmental and pathogenic bacteria.

Dataset Information

Association of biodiversity with the rates of micropollutant biotransformations among full-scale wastewater treatment plant communities.

Publications

Association of biodiversity with the rates of micropollutant biotransformations among full-scale wastewater treatment plant communities.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets