Varied interspecies interactions between anammox and denitrifying bacteria enhanced nitrogen removal in a single-stage simultaneous anammox and denitrification system

• Published in: The Science of the total environment Vol. 813; p. 152519
• Main Authors: Wang, Depeng, Huang, Kailong, He, Xiwei, Zhang, Xu-Xiang, Meng, Yabing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 20.03.2022
• Subjects: Anaerobic Ammonia Oxidation; Bacteria - genetics; Bioreactors; Denitrification; Ecological trait; Interspecies interaction; Metagenomics; Nitrogen; Oxidation-Reduction; Sewage; Simultaneous anammox and denitrification; Spatial distribution; Waste Water; Metagenomics; Spatial distribution; Interspecies interaction; Simultaneous anammox and denitrification; Ecological trait
• ISSN: 0048-9697; 1879-1026
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.152519

The simultaneous anammox and denitrification (SAD) system has received growing interest for the enhanced nitrogen removal, while the ecological traits of microbial community including spatial distribution characteristics, assembly processes and interspecies interactions have not been fully unraveled. The present study applied metagenomics and ecological analysis methods to gain the ecological traits of microbial communities in the SAD system across different organic substrate loadings. Results showed that organic matter significantly affected the bioreactor performance, and the optimal total nitrogen removal efficiency reached 93.4 ± 0.7% under the COD concentrations of 180 ± 18.2 mg/L. Functional organisms including Candidatus Brocadia (3.9%), Denitratisoma (1.6%), Dokdonella (4.4%) and Thauera (4.6%) obviously enriched under the optimal organic loading conditions. Moreover, microbial communities were significantly governed by deterministic process under high organic concentrations, and the denitrifying organisms displayed important ecological roles in the communities. Although anammox bacteria obviously enriched at the middle of bioreactor, it possessed the highest expression activities at both bottom and middle sites. Denitrifying bacteria that enriched at the bottom sites strongly achieved nitrate reduction and provided nitrite for anammox bacteria, while these organisms trended to compete nitrite with anammox bacteria at the middle site. These findings highlight the importance of microbial ecology in the SAD systems, which may expand our understanding of the synergistic patterns between anammox and denitrifying bacteria. [Display omitted] •Temporal and spatial distributions of microbial communities were investigated in the SAD system.•Organic substrate strengthened the deterministic processes in community assembly.•Anammox bacteria was highly enriched and active at the bottom and middle of bioreactor.•High activity of nitrate and nitrite reduction was found at the bottom and middle of bioreactor, respectively.•Interspecies interactions between anammox and denitrifying bacteria exhibited spatial difference.