Microbial Community Response on Wastewater Discharge in Boreal Lake Sediments
نویسندگان
چکیده
Despite high performance, municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) still discharge significant amounts of organic material and nitrogen and even microbes into the receiving water bodies, altering physico-chemical conditions and microbial functions. In this study, we examined how nitrified wastewater affects the microbiology of boreal lake sediments. Microbial community compositions were assessed with next generation sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene, and a more detailed view on nitrogen transformation processes was gained with qPCR targeting on functional genes (nirS, nirK, nosZI, nosZII, amoAarchaea, and amoAbacteria). In both of the two studied lake sites, the microbial community composition differed significantly between control point and wastewater discharge point, and a gradual shift toward natural community composition was seen downstream following the wastewater gradient. SourceTracker analysis predicted that ∼2% of sediment microbes were of WWTP-origin on the study site where wastewater was freely mixed with the lake water, while when wastewater was specially discharged to the sediment surface, ∼6% of microbes originated from WWTP, but the wastewater-influenced area was more limited. In nitrogen transformation processes, the ratio between nitrifying archaea (AOA) and bacteria (AOB) was affected by wastewater effluent, as the AOA abundance decreased from the control point (AOA:AOB 28:1 in Keuruu, 11:1 in Petäjävesi) to the wastewater-influenced sampling points, where AOB dominated (AOA:AOB 1:2-1:15 in Keuruu, 1:3-1:19 in Petäjävesi). The study showed that wastewater can affect sediment microbial community through importing nutrients and organic material and altering habitat characteristics, but also through bringing wastewater-originated microbes to the sediment, and may thus have significant impact on the freshwater biogeochemistry, especially in the nutrient-poor boreal ecosystems.
منابع مشابه
Metagenomics Reveals the Impact of Wastewater Treatment Plants on the Dispersal of Microorganisms and Genes in Aquatic Sediments
Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) release treated effluent containing mobile genetic elements (MGEs), antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), and microorganisms into the environment, yet little is known about their influence on nearby microbial communities and the retention of these factors in receiving water bodies. Our research aimed to characterize the genes and organisms from two different WW...
متن کاملThe effects of crude oil on marine microbial communities in sediments from the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea: A microcosm experiment
Changes in the microbial community in response to catastrophic oil spills in marine and fresh water environments have been well documented. Molecular methods provide tools for analyzing the entire bacterial community, covering also those bacteria that have not been cultured in the laboratory. In this study, four different microcosms were set up containing sediments collected from the Persian Gu...
متن کاملThe effects of crude oil on marine microbial communities in sediments from the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea: A microcosm experiment
Changes in the microbial community in response to catastrophic oil spills in marine and fresh water environments have been well documented. Molecular methods provide tools for analyzing the entire bacterial community, covering also those bacteria that have not been cultured in the laboratory. In this study, four different microcosms were set up containing sediments collected from the Persian Gu...
متن کاملSalinity shapes microbial diversity and community structure in surface sediments of the Qinghai-Tibetan Lakes
Investigating microbial response to environmental variables is of great importance for understanding of microbial acclimatization and evolution in natural environments. However, little is known about how microbial communities responded to environmental factors (e.g. salinity, geographic distance) in lake surface sediments of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP). In this study, microbial diversity ...
متن کاملAssociation between degradation of pharmaceuticals and endocrine-disrupting compounds and microbial communities along a treated wastewater effluent gradient in Lake Mead.
The role of microbial communities in the degradation of trace organic contaminants in the environment is little understood. In this study, the biotransformation potential of 27 pharmaceuticals and endocrine-disrupting compounds was examined in parallel with a characterization of the native microbial community in water samples from four sites variously impacted by urban run-off and wastewater di...
متن کامل