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Correlating microbial community with physicochemical indices and structures of a full-scale integrated constructed wetland system

  • Environmental biotechnology
  • Published:
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Abstract

Microorganisms play a key role in removal of pollutants in constructed wetlands (CWs). The aim of this study was to investigate the composition and diversity of microbes in a full-scale integrated constructed wetland system and examine how microbial assemblages were shaped by the structures and physicochemical properties of the sediments. The microbial assemblages were determined using 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing. Results showed that the microbial phenotypes were more diverse in the system than in single CWs. The genera of Zoogloea, Comamonas, Thiobacillus, Nitrosospira, Denitratisoma, Azonexus, and Azospira showed relatively high abundances, which contributed to the removal of organic matter and nitrogen. The interactions among the three CWs in series acted a key role in the increase of phylogenetic diversity and high percentage of shared operational taxonomic units. In the system, some core microbes always existed even with the changing environment. Redox potential and NH4-N were the important factors affecting the overall microbial community patterns. Total organic carbon had a relatively high impact on some denitrifiers. The results from this study should be useful to better understand the microbial mechanism of wastewater treatment in integrated constructed wetland systems.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by grants from the National Science and Technology Major Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2015ZX07204-002-003) and from the Chinese National Natural Science Foundation (no. 41471181).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Control and Remediation Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, No. 135, Xingang Xi Road, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510275, China

    Yinghai Wu, Xunan Yang & Renduo Zhang

  2. South China Institute of Environmental Science, Ministry of Environment Protection, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510655, China

    Yinghai Wu, Xiaohang Fang & Di Yang

  3. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510640, China

    Rui Han

  4. School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510275, China

    Xi Chen

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  1. Yinghai Wu
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  2. Rui Han
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  3. Xunan Yang
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  4. Xiaohang Fang
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  5. Xi Chen
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  7. Renduo Zhang
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Correspondence to Renduo Zhang.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Yinghai Wu and Rui Han contributed equally to this work.

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Wu, Y., Han, R., Yang, X. et al. Correlating microbial community with physicochemical indices and structures of a full-scale integrated constructed wetland system. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 100, 6917–6926 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-016-7526-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-016-7526-4

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