Characteristics of microfauna and their relationships with the performance of an activated sludge plant in China.

The occurrence and abundance of the microfauna groups were compared with the physico-chemical and operational parameters of the Baoding Lugang Sewage Treatment Plant in China. Attached and crawling ciliates were the dominant groups of ciliates. Crawling ciliates and testate amoebae showed a strong association with effluent BOD5 (biochemical oxygen demand). Therefore, these two groups are likely to be useful bioindicators since their number decreased as the process produced poor quality effluent. Testate amoebae also had significant negative correlations with effluent TN (total nitrogen), NH4(+)-N, SS (suspended solids) and SVI (sludge volumetric index), which means that this group of ciliates may be indicators of good performance of the activated sludge system. Carnivorous ciliates and flagellates had significant positive correlations with SVI, suggesting that these two groups may be indicators of bad settlement conditions of sludge. As identification of the microfauna species is difficult and time-consuming, we recommend using microfauna functional groups to evaluate the performance of the activated sludge system.