Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Metabolic Dynamics of Soil Microorganisms of the Aquatic Ecosystem is a Key Component for Efficient Sewage Purification in Single Pond Natural Treatment Wetlands at East Kolkata Wetland

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Waste and Biomass Valorization Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

East Kolkata Wetlands (EKW), a collection of low-lying natural wetlands located on the eastern outskirts of Kolkata, India, present a natural setting for efficient sewage treatment within 9 to 12 days. The suspended solids from the water column are removed by sedimentation due to gravity largely within Day 0 to Day 6 and thereby creating an oxygen demand at the soil–water interface of the wetland ecosystem. This study investigated the underlying mechanisms by which soil microorganisms reduce this oxygen demand and drive efficient sewage purification.

Methods

To this end, different metabolic activity assays of soil microorganisms were performed. Additionally, various soil parameters that influence the sewage treatment process including soil moisture content and availability of anaerobic electron acceptors were explored.

Results

The results demonstrated that before the introduction of sewage, the moisture content of the wetland soil was exceedingly low and it increased markedly upon the introduction of sewage. Additionally, anaerobic electron acceptors were abundantly available during the early phase of treatment. Results also demonstrated that the anaerobic metabolic activity of soil microorganisms increased several folds at the onset of sewage treatment. The rewetting of soil led to hydrolytic activity of anaerobic soil microorganisms. Heightened microbial metabolic activity under anoxic and oxygen-depleted conditions led to increased biodegradation of sewage organic matter. Subsequently, as the environment turned oxic, aerobic microbial activity increased facilitating aerobic degradation.

Conclusion

The high oxygen demand of sewage was reduced competently through the metabolic activities of the wetland microorganisms within the soil–water interface without any exogenous addition of oxygen.

Graphical Abstract

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

Data Availability

The data generated during this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

Code Availability

All statistical analyses were performed in Microsoft Office Excel 2007 and SPSS-11(on line version).

References

  1. Das Gupta, A., Sarkar, S., Ghosh, P., Saha, T., Sil, A.K.: Phosphorous dynamics of the aquatic system constitutes an important axis for waste water purification in natural treatment pond (s) in East Kolkata Wetlands. Ecol. Eng. 90, 63–67 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2016.01.056

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Faulwetter, J.L., Gagnon, V., Sundberg, C., Chazarenc, F., Burr, M.D., Brisson, J.B., Camper, A.K., Stein, O.R.: Microbial processes influencing performance of treatment wetlands: a review. Ecol. Eng. 35(6), 987–1004 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2008.12.030

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Sarkar, S., Ghosh, P.B., Mukherjee, K., Sil, A.K., Saha, T.: Sewage treatment in a single pond system at East Kolkata Wetland, India. Water Sci. Technol. 60(9), 2309–2317 (2009). https://doi.org/10.2166/wst.2009.673

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Kadlec, R.H., Knight, R.L.: Treatment wetlands. CRC Press, Baca Raton (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Rao, M.N.: Waste water treatment. Oxford and IBH Publishing, New Delhi (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Mitsch, W.J., Gosselink, J.G.: Wetlands. Wiley, New York (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Raychaudhuri, S., Salodkar, S., Sudarshan, M., Thakur, A.R.: Integrated resource recovery at East Calcutta Wetland: how safe is these? Am. J. Agric. Biol. Sci. (2007). https://doi.org/10.3844/ajabssp.2007.75.80

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Das Gupta, A., Sarkar, S., Singh, J., Saha, T., Sil, A.K.: Nitrogen dynamics of the aquatic system is an important driving force for efficient sewage purification in single pond natural treatment wetlands at East Kolkata Wetland. Chemosphere 164, 576–584 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2016.08.140

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Sarkar, S., Ghosh, P., Sil, A.K., Saha, T.: Suspended particulate matter dynamics act as a driving force for single pond sewage stabilization system. Ecol. Eng. 69, 206–212 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2014.03.060

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. APHA: Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater, 20th edn. American Public Health Association, Washington, D.C. (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Wetzel, R.G.: Limnology: lake and river ecosystems. Gulf Professional Publishing, Oxford (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Burns, M.J., Fletcher, T.D., Walsh, C.J., Ladson, A.R., Hatt, B.E.: Hydrologic shortcomings of conventional urban storm water management and opportunities for reform. Landsc. Urban Plan. 105(3), 230–240 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2011.12.012

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Gessner, M.O., Swan, C.M., Dang, C.K., McKie, B.G., Bardgett, R.D., Wall, D.H., Hättenschwiler, S.: Diversity meets decomposition. Trends Ecol. Evol. 25(6), 372–380 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2010.01.010

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Hedges, J.I., Oades, J.M.: Comparative organic geochemistries of soils and marine sediments. Org. Geochem. 27(7–8), 319–361 (1997)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Hatano, K., Frederick, D.J., Moore, J.A.: Microbial ecology of constructed wetlands used for treating pulp mill wastewater. Water Sci. Technol. 29(4), 233–239 (1994)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Reddy, K.R., D’angelo, E.M.: Soil processes regulating water quality in wetlands. In: Global wetlands: old world and new, pp. 309–324. Elsevier, Amsterdam (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Alef, K., Nannipieri, P.: Methods in applied soil microbiology and biochemistry (No. 631.46 M592ma). Academic Press, Cambridge (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  18. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Method 1683: municipal biosolids specific oxygen uptake rate in biosolids, January 2001. Office of Water, Washington, DC (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Prescott, L.M., Harley, J.P., Klein, D.A.: Microbiology, 6th edn. McGraw-Hill Higher Education, Dubuque (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Ju, F., Beck, K., Yin, X., Maccagnan, A., McArdell, C.S., Singer, H.P., Johnson, D.R., Zhang, T., Bürgmann, H.: Wastewater treatment plant resistomes are shaped by bacterial composition, genetic exchange, and upregulated expression in the effluent microbiomes. ISME J. 13, 346–360 (2018)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Zhang, B., Xu, X., Zhu, L.: Structure and function of the microbial consortia of activated sludge in typical municipal wastewater treatment plants in winter. Sci. Rep. 7(1), 17930 (2017)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Zhang, B., Yu, Q., Yan, G., Zhu, H., Xu, X., Zhu, L.: Seasonal bacterial community succession in four typical wastewater treatment plants: correlations between core microbes and process performance. Sci. Rep. 8(1), 4566 (2018)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

ADG is supported by CU-DBT IPLS program (Sanction No. 1952/71 AGOI Dated 13.10.2011). Authors would like to thank Dr. Phanibhusan Ghosh and Dr. Prosun Tribedi for helpful discussions. Authors would also like to thank Prof. Srimonti Sarkar for critical reading of the manuscript.

Funding

Not applicable.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, University of Calcutta, 35BC Road, Kolkata, 700019, India

    Anirban Das Gupta, Subhasis Sarkar & Alok Kumar Sil

  2. Institute of Environmental Studies and Wetland Management, DD24, Sector I, Salt Lake, Kolkata, 700064, India

    Anirban Das Gupta, Subhasis Sarkar, Jayprakash Singh & Tapan Saha

  3. Department of Biotechnology, IIT Kharagpur, Khagarpur, 721302, India

    Anirban Das Gupta

  4. Department of Microbiology, School of Life Science, Swami Vivekananda University, Barrakpore, West Bengal, 700121, India

    Subhasis Sarkar

  5. Thompson Rivers University, 805 TRU Way, Kamloops, BC, V2C 0C8, Canada

    Jayprakash Singh

Authors
  1. Anirban Das Gupta
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Subhasis Sarkar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jayprakash Singh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Tapan Saha
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Alok Kumar Sil
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

ADG carried out the majority of the work, designing of experiments, field survey, sample collection, performance of experimental work, analysis and interpretation of data and was involved in writing the manuscript. SS participated in designing of experiments and field survey. JPS participated in field survey, and sample collection. TS participated in conceiving the idea, designing of experiments, field survey, and was involved in interpretation of data. AKS participated in conceiving the idea, designing of experiments, analysis and interpretation of data and was involved in writing the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alok Kumar Sil.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Ethical Approval

Not applicable.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (DOC 429 KB)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Das Gupta, A., Sarkar, S., Singh, J. et al. Metabolic Dynamics of Soil Microorganisms of the Aquatic Ecosystem is a Key Component for Efficient Sewage Purification in Single Pond Natural Treatment Wetlands at East Kolkata Wetland. Waste Biomass Valor 13, 4611–4624 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12649-022-01806-w

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12649-022-01806-w

Keywords

Search

Navigation