Use of chemometric analyses to assess biological wastewater treatment plants by protozoa and metazoa monitoring

• Published in: Environmental monitoring and assessment Vol. 190; no. 9; p. 497
• Main Authors: Amaral, A. Luís, Leal, Cristiano, Vaz, A. Isabel, Vieira, J. Carvalho, Quinteiro, Andreia C., Costa, M. Lourdes, Castro, L. Miguel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer Nature 01.09.2018; Springer International Publishing; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Activated sludge; Aeration; Aerobic wastewater treatment plants; Amoeba; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Biological wastewater treatment; Biota; Ciliates; Communities; Decision analysis; Decision trees; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecology; Ecotoxicology; Environment; Environmental Management; Environmental monitoring; Environmental science; Flagellates; Fluid filters; Hydraulic loading; Microbiota monitoring; Monitoring; Monitoring/Environmental Analysis; Nitrification; Operational assessment; Operational problems; Organic loading; Oxidation; Principal component analysis; Protozoa; Relative abundance; Science & Technology; Sludge; Swimming; Trickling filters; Variance analysis; Wastewater; Wastewater treatment; Wastewater treatment plants; Water treatment; Water treatment plants; Microbiota monitoring; Aerobic wastewater treatment plants; Operational assessment; Decision trees; Principal component analysis
• ISSN: 0167-6369; 1573-2959
• DOI: 10.1007/s10661-018-6882-1

Protozoa and metazoa biota communities in biological wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) are known to be dependent of both the plant type (oxidation ditch, trickling filter, conventional activated sludge, among others) and the working operational conditions (incoming effluent characteristics, toxics presence, organic load, aeration, hydraulic and sludge retention times, nitrification occurrence, etc.). Thus, for analogous WWTP operating in equivalent operating conditions, similar protozoa and metazoa communities can be found. Indeed, the protozoa and metazoa biota monitoring can be considered a quite useful tool for assessing the functioning of biological WWTP. Furthermore, the use of chemometric techniques in WWTP monitoring is becoming widespread to enlighten interrelationships within the plant, especially when a large collection of data can be obtained. In the current study, the protozoa and metazoa communities of three different types of WWTP, comprising one oxidation ditch, four trickling filters, and three conventional activated sludge plants, were monitored. For that purpose, metazoa, as well as the main protozoa groups (flagellates, free-swimming, crawling and sessile ciliates, and testate amoeba) were determined in terms of contents and relative abundance. The collected data was further processed by chemometric techniques, such as cross-correlation, principal components, multivariate ANOVA, and decision trees analyses, allowing to successfully identify, and characterize, the different studied WWTP, and thus, being able to help monitoring and diagnosing operational problems. This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit and COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006684) and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020 — Programa Operacional Regional do Norte.