Resistance of aerobic granular sludge microbiomes to periodic loss of biomass
Journal article, 2023

Granular sludge is a biofilm process used for wastewater treatment which is currently being implemented worldwide. It is important to understand how disturbances affect the microbial community and performance of reactors. Here, two acetate-fed replicate reactors were inoculated with acclimatized sludge and the reactor performance, and the granular sludge microbial community succession were studied for 149 days. During this time, the microbial community was challenged by periodically removing half of the reactor biomass, subsequently increasing the food-to-microorganism (F/M) ratio. Diversity analysis together with null models show that overall, the microbial communities were resistant to the disturbances, observing some minor effects on polyphosphate-accumulating and denitrifying microbial communities and their associated reactor functions. Community turnover was driven by drift and random granule loss, and stochasticity was the governing ecological process for community assembly. These results evidence the aerobic granular sludge process as a robust system for wastewater treatment.

Granular sludge

Microbial succession

Null model

Disturbance

Resilience

Author

Raquel Liebana

Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA)

Chalmers, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Water Environment Technology

Oskar Modin

Chalmers, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Water Environment Technology

Frank Persson

Chalmers, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Water Environment Technology

Malte Hermansson

University of Gothenburg

Britt-Marie Wilen

Chalmers, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Water Environment Technology

Biofilm

25902075 (eISSN)

Vol. 6 100145

Metagenomic and transkription analyzes of partial nitration-anammox (PNA) processes in wastewater treatment

Formas (2018-01423), 2019-01-01 -- 2021-12-31.

Aerobic granular sludge membrane bioreactor for nutrient removal from wastewater

Formas (245-2013-627), 2014-01-01 -- 2017-12-31.

Subject Categories

Geotechnical Engineering

Water Engineering

Microbiology

Water Treatment

Other Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering

DOI

10.1016/j.bioflm.2023.100145

PubMed

37575957

More information

Latest update

8/11/2023