Tank-dependence of the functionality and network differentiation of activated sludge community in a full-scale anaerobic/anoxic/aerobic municipal sewage treatment plant

doi:10.1007/s11783-023-1636-x

Front. Environ. Sci. Eng.

2023, Vol. 17

Issue (3) : 36 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-023-1636-x

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Tank-dependence of the functionality and network differentiation of activated sludge community in a full-scale anaerobic/anoxic/aerobic municipal sewage treatment plant

Hongcan Cui^1,², Ronghua Xu^1,², Zhong Yu^1,², Yuanyuan Yao^1,², Shaoqing Zhang^1,², Fangang Meng^1,²(

)

¹. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
². Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Control and Remediation Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China

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Abstract

● Environmental parameters affected functional bacteria and network associations.

● The structure and interactions of AS networks changed greatly within tanks.

● Anoxic co-occurrence network was more unstable and easily influenced.

● Composition of functional bacteria had a seasonal succession pattern.

● Tetrasphaera was the major PAO in spring and winter leading a better P removal.

Understanding the structures and dynamics of bacterial communities in activated sludge (AS) in full-scale wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is of both engineering and ecological significance. Previous investigations have mainly focused on the AS communities of WWTP aeration tanks, and the differences and interactions between the communities in anaerobic and anoxic tanks of the AS system remain poorly understood. Here, we investigated the structures of bacterial communities and their inter-connections in three tanks (anaerobic, anoxic, and aerobic) and influent from a full-scale WWTP with conventional anaerobic/anoxic/aerobic (A/A/O) process over a year to explore their functionality and network differentiation. High-throughput sequencing showed that community compositions did not differ appreciably between the different tanks, likely due to the continuous sludge community interchange between tanks. However, network analysis showed significant differences in inter-species relationships, OTU topological roles, and keystone populations in the different AS communities. Moreover, the anoxic network is expected to be more unstable and easily affected by environmental disturbance. Tank-associated environmental factors, including dissolved oxygen, pH, and nutrients, were found to affect the relative abundance of functional genera (i.e., AOB, NOB, PAOs, and denitrifiers), suggesting that these groups were more susceptible to environmental variables than other bacteria. Therefore, this work could assist in improving our understanding of tank-associated microbial ecology, particularly the response of functional bacteria to seasonal variations in WWTPs employing A/A/O process.

Keywords Activated sludge Bacterial community Tank-dependence Network association Functional bacteria

Corresponding Author(s): Fangang Meng

Issue Date: 24 October 2022

Cite this article:

Hongcan Cui,Ronghua Xu,Zhong Yu, et al. Tank-dependence of the functionality and network differentiation of activated sludge community in a full-scale anaerobic/anoxic/aerobic municipal sewage treatment plant[J]. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2023, 17(3): 36.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/10.1007/s11783-023-1636-x
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/Y2023/V17/I3/36

Fig.1 Removal of organics and nutrients in the WWTP during the one-year sampling period. (a) COD; (b) TP; (c) TN; (d) NH₄⁺-N.

Tab.1 Physio-chemical and operational parameters of WWTP

Fig.2 Alpha and Beta diversities of the bacterial communities from influent water and different tanks. Alpha diversity was assessed by the Chao1 (a), Shannon (b), Simpson (c), and ACE (d) indices.

Fig.3 The relative abundances of functional bacteria in the influent wastewater and sludge samples from different tanks.

Fig.4 Correlations between bacterial community structures and environmental variables in activated sludge and wastewater samples. (a) Influent, (b) Anaerobic tank, (c) Anoxic tank, (d) Aerobic tank. Squares marked with asterisks show significant correlations: ***, P < 0.001; **, P < 0.01; *, P < 0.05.

Tab.2 Topological properties of the empirical pMENs of the different tanks, sludge communities, and their associated random pMENs

Fig.5 Phylogenetic molecular ecological networks (pMENs) of the influent (a), and anaerobic (b), anoxic (c), and aerobic (d) sludge microbiotas. Node colors indicate the OTU modularity class and node sizes indicate the connectivity values. Red and gray edges indicate positive and negative connections, respectively. The edge thickness is directly proportional to the absolute value of the correlation coefficient.

Fig.6 Z-P plot of OTUs in influent (a), anaerobic (b), anoxic (c), and aerobic (d) sludge communities based on their topological roles.

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