Effect of copper in the protistan community of activated sludge

Abstract

Protists have proved to be an interesting tool for assessing the occurrence of pollution in wastewater treatment systems along with its role in the control of pollution itself through grazing of dispersed bacteria and maintenance of a healthy trophic web in those artificial ecosystems. Two sets of assays were carried on in a bench scale pilot plant in order to study the response of the activated sludge community of protists to the exposure of copper: the first set was carried on with synthetic sewage and the second one with real sewage. The results emphasize the ability of activated sludge biological communities to survive and to react to toxicants and highlight the role of protistan communities as indicators of toxicants entrance in treatment systems.

Effects of Experimental Lead Pollution on the Microbial Communities Associated with Sphagnum fallax (Bryophyta)

“…In addition, a decrease in the abundance of Arcella sp., Difflugia sp., and Euglypha sp. in activated sludge was observed in response to copper pollution at 20 mg L _ 1 [30].…”

Comparative study of protozoan communities in full-scale MWTPs in Beijing related to treatment processes

“…The success of this biological process is dependant not only on the single role-play of functional bacteria, who are foremost responsible for the biotransformation of waste materials and accordingly has attracted much more special attentions in research fields, but also on the overall ''healthy'' ecological interactions among the microscopic residents all together (Curds, 1982;Madoni and Ghetti, 1981;Madoni et al, 1993;Martín-Cereceda et al, 1996). In this artificial ecosystem, protozoa serving as primary consumers of bacteria and fungi as well as food sources for metazoa, construct an essential trophic link in food web and therefore make a numerically and functionally significant contribution Martín-Cereceda et al, 2001;Degans et al, 2002;Nicolau et al, 2005). In addition to improving the effluent quality through grazing of dispersed bacteria and suspended particles (Curds and Cockburn, 1970; ARTICLE IN PRESS Curds, 1982;Salvadó et al, 1995;Lee et al, 2004), protozoa exert potential influence on the treatment system by regulating the morphological and taxonomic structures of bacterial community through top-down predatory behaviors Jü rgens et al, 1999;Hö fle, 1999, 2001).…”

“…Giving an insight into protozoan communities is hereby of great significance in expanding the holistic understanding of activated-sludge ecosystem, and thus improving the performance of the existing biological treatment processes. It is accepted that the protozoan communities will be influenced in two pathways: to be manipulated directly by virtue of their inherent sensitivities to environment, and meanwhile to be modified indirectly in accordance with the potential changes of bacterial community structures through food chain (Curds and Cockburn, 1970;Zarda et al, 1998;Jezbera et al, 2005;Nicolau et al, 2005). For building the species-habitat relationship, most previous studies have been devoted to monitoring protozoan communities for predicting effluent quality and plant performance (Curds and Cockburn, 1970;Poole, 1984;Al-Shahwani and Horan, 1991;Salvadó et al, 1995;Martín-Cereceda et al, 1996).The species of protozoa present in activated sludge have been well inventoried as important bio-indicators since last century (Curds and Cockburn, 1970;Madoni and Ghetti, 1981;Madoni et al, 1993;Nicolau et al, 2001).…”

Using “bryophytes and their associated testate amoeba” microsystems as indicators of atmospheric pollution

“…and Difflugia sp. are known to be sensitive to Cu pollution (Nicolau et al, 2005;Kauppila et al, 2006). However, the species responses at the industrial site are in contradiction to the results of Patterson et al (1996) in water and Asada and Warner (2009) in soil.…”