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Treatment performance and microorganism community structure of integrated vertical-flow constructed wetland plots for domestic wastewater

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Abstract

In order to investigate the treatment performance and microorganism mechanism of IVCW for domestic wastewater in central of China, two parallel pilot-scale IVCW systems were built to evaluate purification efficiencies, microbial community structure and enzyme activities. The results showed that mean removal efficiencies were 81.03 % for COD, 51.66 % for total nitrogen (TN), 42.50 % for NH4 +-N, and 68.01 % for TP. Significant positive correlations between nitrate reductase activities and TN and NH4 +-N removal efficiencies, along with a significant correlation between substrate enzyme activity and operation time, were observed. Redundancy analysis demonstrated gram-negative bacteria were mainly responsible for urease and phosphatase activities, and also played a major role in dehydrogenase and nitrate reductase activities. Meanwhile, anaerobic bacteria, gram-negative bacteria, and saturated FA groups, gram-positive bacteria exhibited good correlations with the removal of COD (p = 0.388), N (p = 0.236), and TP (p = 0.074), respectively. The IVCW system can be used to treat domestic wastewater effectively.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China (51179184, 41272272), Key Project of the National Twelfth-Five Year Research Program of China (2012BAD25B05-02), Major Science and Technology Program for Water Pollution Control and Treatment (2011ZX07303-001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Su-qing Wu, Jun-jun Chang, Yanran Dai, Zhen-bin Wu & Wei Liang

  2. Jiangxi Academy of Environmental Sciences, Nanchang, 330029, China

    Su-qing Wu

  3. Research Institute of Engineering and Technology, Yunnan University, Kunming, 650091, China

    Jun-jun Chang

  4. Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Yanran Dai

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  1. Su-qing Wu
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  4. Zhen-bin Wu
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  5. Wei Liang
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Correspondence to Wei Liang.

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Responsible editor: Robert Duran

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Wu, Sq., Chang, Jj., Dai, Y. et al. Treatment performance and microorganism community structure of integrated vertical-flow constructed wetland plots for domestic wastewater. Environ Sci Pollut Res 20, 3789–3798 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-012-1307-0

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