Please wait a minute...
Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering

ISSN 2095-2201

ISSN 2095-221X(Online)

CN 10-1013/X

Postal Subscription Code 80-973

2018 Impact Factor: 3.883

Front. Environ. Sci. Eng.    2022, Vol. 16 Issue (11) : 149    https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-022-1584-x
VIEWS
Unintended nutrient imbalance induced by wastewater effluent inputs to receiving water and its ecological consequences
Yindong Tong1(), Xuejun Wang2, James J. Elser3()
1. School of` Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
2. College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
3. Flathead Lake Biological Station, University of Montana, Polson, MT 59860, USA
 Download: PDF(1206 KB)   HTML
 Export: BibTeX | EndNote | Reference Manager | ProCite | RefWorks
Abstract

Eutrophication is the most widespread water quality issue globally. To date, most efforts to control eutrophication have focused on reductions of external nutrient inputs, yet importance of nutrient stoichiometry and subsequent shift in plankton composition in aquatic ecosystem has been largely neglected. To address eutrophication, improved sanitation is one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, spurring the constructions of wastewater treatment facilities that have improved water quality in many lakes and rivers. However, control measures are often targeted at and effective in removing a single nutrient from sewage and thus are less effective in removing the others, resulting in the changes of nutrient stoichiometry. In general, more effective phosphorus removal relative to nitrogen has occurred in wastewater treatment leading to substantial increases in N/P ratios in effluent relative to the influent. Unfortunately, high N/P ratios in receiving waters can impose negative influences on ecosystems. Thus, long-term strategies for domestic wastewater management should not merely focus on the total reduction of nutrient discharge but also consider their stoichiometric balances in receiving waters.

Keywords Nutrient stoichiometry      Wastewater treatment      Ecosystem functioning      Water quality management     
Corresponding Author(s): Yindong Tong,James J. Elser   
Issue Date: 04 July 2022
 Cite this article:   
Yindong Tong,Xuejun Wang,James J. Elser. Unintended nutrient imbalance induced by wastewater effluent inputs to receiving water and its ecological consequences[J]. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2022, 16(11): 149.
 URL:  
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/10.1007/s11783-022-1584-x
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/Y2022/V16/I11/149
Fig.1  Impacts of municipal wastewater input on nutrient concentrations in receiving water.
1 Carlson R E, Simpson J (1996). A Coordinator’s Guide to Volunteer Lake Monitoring Methods. Washington, DC: North American Lake Management Society, 96
2 J J Elser S P Devlin J Yu A Baumann M J Church J E Dore R O Hall M Hollar T Johnson T Vick-Majors C (2022) White. Sustained stoichiometric imbalance and its ecological consequences in a large oligotrophic lake. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, (in press)
3 J J Elser, W Fagan, R Denno, D Dobberfuhl, A Folarin, A Huberty, S Interlandi, S Kilham, E McCauley, K Schulz, E Siemann, R Sterner. (2000). Nutritional constraints in terrestrial and freshwater food webs. Nature, 408( 6812): 578– 580
https://doi.org/10.1038/35046058
4 Environment Agency (2018) European. European Waters: Assessment of Status and Pressures 2018. Copenhagen: European Environment Agency
5 S Guildford R Hecky ( 2000). Total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and nutrient limitation in lakes and oceans: Is there a common relationship? Limnology and Oceanography, 45( 6): 1213– 1223
6 F L Hellweger, R M Martin, E Eigemann, D J Smith, G J Dick, S W Wilhelm. (2022). Models predict planned phosphorus load reduction will make Lake Erie more toxic. Science, 376( 6596): 1001– 1005
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abm6791
7 J Huisman, G A Codd, H Paerl, B Ibelings, J H Verspagen, P M Visser. (2018). Cyanobacterial blooms. Nature Reviews. Microbiology, 16( 8): 471– 483
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-018-0040-1
8 I Loladze, J J Elser. (2011). The origins of the redfield nitrogen-to-phosphorus ratio are in a homoeostatic protein-to-RNA ratio. Ecology Letters, 14( 3): 244– 250
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2010.01577.x
9 J Peñuelas, I A Janssens, P Ciais, M Obersteiner, J Sardans. (2020). Anthropogenic global shifts in biospheric N and P concentrations and ratios and their impacts on biodiversity, ecosystem productivity, food security, and human health. Global Change Biology, 26( 4): 1962– 1985
https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14981
10 J Peñuelas, J Sardans. (2022). The global nitrogen-phosphorus imbalance. Science, 375( 6578): 266– 267
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abl4827
11 J Rice, P Westerhoff. (2017). High levels of endocrine pollutants in US streams during low flow due to insufficient wastewater dilution. Nature Geoscience, 10( 8): 587– 591
https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2984
12 R Sterner J (2002) Elser. Ecological Stoichiometry: The Biology of Elements from Molecules to the Biosphere. Princeton: Princeton University Press
13 Y Tong, W Zhang, X Wang, R M Couture, T Larssen, Y Zhao, J Li, H Liang, X Liu, X Bu. et al.. (2017). Decline in Chinese lake phosphorus concentration accompanied by shift in sources since 2006. Nature Geoscience, 10( 507): 507– 511
14 Y Tong, M Wang, J Penuelas, X Liu, H W Paerl, J J Elser, J Sardans, R M Couture, T Larssen, H Hu. et al.. (2020). Improvement in municipal wastewater treatment alters lake nitrogen to phosphorus ratios in populated regions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 117( 21): 11566– 11572
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1920759117
15 D Van de Waal, V H Smith, S A J Declerck, E Stam, J J Elser. (2014). Stoichiometric regulation of phytoplankton toxins. Ecology Letters, 17( 6): 736– 742
https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12280
16 Z Wang D Shao P Westerhoff ( 2017). Wastewater discharge impact on drinking water sources along the Yangtze River (China). Science of the Total Environment, 599−600: 1399− 1407
17 Z Yan, W Han, J Peñuelas, J Sardans, J Elser, E Du, P Reich, J Fang. (2016). Phosphorus accumulates faster than nitrogen globally in freshwater ecosystems under anthropogenic impacts. Ecology Letters, 19( 10): 1237– 1246
https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12658
[1] Yabing Meng, Depeng Wang, Zhong Yu, Qingyun Yan, Zhili He, Fangang Meng. Genome-resolved metagenomic analysis reveals different functional potentials of multiple Candidatus Brocadia species in a full-scale swine wastewater treatment system[J]. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2023, 17(1): 2-.
[2] Shaoping Luo, Yi Peng, Ying Liu, Yongzhen Peng. Research progress and prospects of complete ammonia oxidizing bacteria in wastewater treatment[J]. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2022, 16(9): 123-.
[3] Runyao Huang, Jin Xu, Li Xie, Hongtao Wang, Xiaohang Ni. Energy neutrality potential of wastewater treatment plants: A novel evaluation framework integrating energy efficiency and recovery[J]. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2022, 16(9): 117-.
[4] Yuqing Yan, Xin Wang. Integrated energy view of wastewater treatment: A potential of electrochemical biodegradation[J]. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2022, 16(4): 52-.
[5] Zhida Li, Lu Lu. Wastewater treatment meets artificial photosynthesis: Solar to green fuel production, water remediation and carbon emission reduction[J]. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2022, 16(4): 53-.
[6] Sen Dong, Peng Gao, Benhang Li, Li Feng, Yongze Liu, Ziwen Du, Liqiu Zhang. Occurrence and migration of microplastics and plasticizers in different wastewater and sludge treatment units in municipal wastewater treatment plant[J]. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2022, 16(11): 142-.
[7] Wei Shan, Bingbing Li, Haichuan Zhang, Zhenghao Zhang, Yan Wang, Zhiyang Gao, Ji Li. Distribution, characteristics and daily fluctuations of microplastics throughout wastewater treatment plants with mixed domestic–industrial influents in Wuxi City, China[J]. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2022, 16(1): 6-.
[8] Kangying Guo, Baoyu Gao, Jie Wang, Jingwen Pan, Qinyan Yue, Xing Xu. Flocculation behaviors of a novel papermaking sludge-based flocculant in practical printing and dyeing wastewater treatment[J]. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2021, 15(5): 103-.
[9] Yunping Han, Lin Li, Ying Wang, Jiawei Ma, Pengyu Li, Chao Han, Junxin Liu. Composition, dispersion, and health risks of bioaerosols in wastewater treatment plants: A review[J]. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2021, 15(3): 38-.
[10] Wenyue Li, Min Chen, Zhaoxiang Zhong, Ming Zhou, Weihong Xing. Hydroxyl radical intensified Cu2O NPs/H2O2 process in ceramic membrane reactor for degradation on DMAc wastewater from polymeric membrane manufacturer[J]. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2020, 14(6): 102-.
[11] Luxi Zou, Huaibo Li, Shuo Wang, Kaikai Zheng, Yan Wang, Guocheng Du, Ji Li. Characteristic and correlation analysis of influent and energy consumption of wastewater treatment plants in Taihu Basin[J]. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2019, 13(6): 83-.
[12] Jiuhui Qu, Hongchen Wang, Kaijun Wang, Gang Yu, Bing Ke, Han-Qing Yu, Hongqiang Ren, Xingcan Zheng, Ji Li, Wen-Wei Li, Song Gao, Hui Gong. Municipal wastewater treatment in China: Development history and future perspectives[J]. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2019, 13(6): 88-.
[13] Yuhan Zheng, Zhiguo Su, Tianjiao Dai, Feifei Li, Bei Huang, Qinglin Mu, Chuanping Feng, Donghui Wen. Identifying human-induced influence on microbial community: A comparative study in the effluent-receiving areas in Hangzhou Bay[J]. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2019, 13(6): 90-.
[14] Muhammad Kashif Shahid, Yunjung Kim, Young-Gyun Choi. Adsorption of phosphate on magnetite-enriched particles (MEP) separated from the mill scale[J]. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2019, 13(5): 71-.
[15] Tiezheng Tong, Kenneth H. Carlson, Cristian A. Robbins, Zuoyou Zhang, Xuewei Du. Membrane-based treatment of shale oil and gas wastewater: The current state of knowledge[J]. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2019, 13(4): 63-.
Viewed
Full text


Abstract

Cited

  Shared   
  Discussed