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Microbial biogeography across a full-scale wastewater treatment plant transect: evidence for immigration between coupled processes

  • Environmental biotechnology
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Abstract

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. 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 cooccur 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.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the PARWQCP staff for assisting with transect sampling and operational data monitoring. G.F.W. was supported by EPA STAR and NSF Graduate Research Fellowships. This work was funded by the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University, by the PARWQCP, and by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research of the US DOE under contract no. DE-AC02-05CH11231 to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

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Author notes

  1. George F. Wells

    Present address: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Rd. Tech A318, Evanston, IL, 60208-3109, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    George F. Wells & Craig S. Criddle

  2. Earth Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Cindy H. Wu, Yvette M. Piceno, Eoin L. Brodie, Todd Z. DeSantis & Gary L. Andersen

  3. Palo Alto Regional Water Quality Control Plant, Palo Alto, CA, USA

    Brad Eggleston

  4. Second Genome, Inc., San Francisco, CA, USA

    Todd Z. DeSantis

  5. Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA

    Terry C. Hazen

  6. Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA

    Terry C. Hazen

  7. Environmental Earth System Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Christopher A. Francis

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  1. George F. Wells
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Correspondence to George F. Wells.

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Wells, G.F., Wu, C.H., Piceno, Y.M. et al. Microbial biogeography across a full-scale wastewater treatment plant transect: evidence for immigration between coupled processes. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 98, 4723–4736 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-014-5564-3

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