Bacterial community dynamics in full-scale activated sludge bioreactors: operational and ecological factors driving community assembly and performance.

ABSTRACT: The assembling of bacterial communities in conventional activated sludge (CAS) bioreactors was thought, until recently, to be chaotic and mostly unpredictable. Studies done over the last decade have shown that specific, and often, predictable random and non-random factors could be responsible for that process. These studies have also motivated a "structure-function" paradigm that is yet to be resolved. Thus, elucidating the factors that affect community assembly in the bioreactors is necessary for predicting fluctuations in community structure and function. For this study activated sludge samples were collected during a one-year period from two geographically distant CAS bioreactors of different size. Combining community fingerprinting analysis and operational parameters data with a robust

SUBMITTER: Valentin-Vargas A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3411768 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature