Influence of substrate type on microbial community structure in vertical-flow constructed wetland treating polluted river water

Abstract

Microorganisms attached on the surfaces of substrate materials in constructed wetland play crucial roles in the removal of organic and inorganic pollutants. However, the impact of substrate material on wetland microbial community structure remains unclear. Moreover, little is known about microbial community in constructed wetland purifying polluted surface water. In this study, Illumina high-throughput sequencing was applied to profile the spatial variation of microbial communities in three pilot-scale surface water constructed wetlands with different substrate materials (sand, zeolite, and gravel). Bacterial community diversity and structure showed remarkable spatial variation in both sand and zeolite wetland systems, but changed slightly in gravel wetland system. Bacterial community was found to be significantly influenced by wetland substrate type. A number of bacterial groups were detected in wetland systems, including Proteobacteria, Chloroflexi, Bacteroidetes, Acidobacteria, Cyanobacteria, Nitrospirae, Planctomycetes, Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, Chlorobi, Spirochaetae, Gemmatimonadetes, Deferribacteres, OP8, WS3, TA06, and OP3, while Proteobacteria (accounting for 29.1-62.3 %), mainly composed of Alpha-, Beta-, Gamma-, and Deltaproteobacteria, showed the dominance and might contribute to the effective reduction of organic pollutants. In addition, Nitrospira-like microorganisms were abundant in surface water constructed wetlands.

Unraveling the active microbial populations involved in nitrogen utilization in a vertical subsurface flow constructed wetland treating urban wastewater

“…In a VF wetland operated under OLR of 27 g COD m -2 d -1 was identified that Nitrosomonas europaea, N. mobilis and Nitrosospira were dominant AOBs in the filter media (Tietz et al, 2007). Guan et al (2015) evaluated in three VF wetlands (1.2 m²) the influence of different substrates (sand, zeolite and gravel) and showed that the bacterial community was significantly influenced by substrate type. However, Nitrospira one of the NOB, was abundant in all units showing no influence of substrate type.…”

Physico-chemical and biological aspects of a serially connected lab-scale constructed wetland-stabilization tank-GAC slow sand filtration system during removal of selected PPCPs

“…Proteobacteria was the most dominant phylum in almost all samples, accounting for more than 50% of the total detected reads (except Day1 and SF), followed by Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria, Verrucomicrobia, Planctomycetes, Patescibacteria and Cyanobacteria. These phyla were also reported as dominant phylum in other CW systems [50,51]. Besides, more than half of the Proteobacteria were from class of Gammaproteobacteria.…”

“…Proteobacterial microorganisms were commonly found in CW and sand filtration systems [50,[58][59][60] and considered playing important roles in the biodegradation or biotransformation of organic compounds in surface water CW systems or filtration systems [59,61]. Therefore, Proteobacteria might have helped to biodegrade the target PPCP compounds and some microorganisms e.g.…”

Planktonic Bacterial and Archaeal Communities in an Artificially Irrigated Estuarine Wetland: Diversity, Distribution, and Responses to Environmental Parameters

“…Microorganisms belonging to the phyla Proteobacteria and Firmicutes are able to degrade a variety of organic compounds, which accounts for the effective removal of DOC [14]. For example, the genera Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter and Bacillus have been linked to the biological degradation of organic and natural compounds [57,58]; however, no significant correlations were observed between these genera and DOC in the LEW, except for the genus Acinetobacter. Wetlands play an important role in methane emissions, and the methanogenic microorganisms involved in this process are also assumed to play vital roles in degrading organic carbon [59].…”