Mass-immigration determines the assembly of activated sludge microbial communities.

ABSTRACT: The assembly of bacterial communities in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is affected by immigration via wastewater streams, but the impact and extent of bacterial immigrants are still unknown. Here, we quantify the effect of immigration at the species level in 11 Danish full-scale activated sludge (AS) plants. All plants have different source communities but have very similar process design, defining the same overall environmental growth conditions. The AS community composition in each plant was strongly reflected by the corresponding influent wastewater (IWW) microbial composition. Most species in AS across the plants were detected and quantified in the corresponding IWW, allowing us to identify their fate in the AS: growing, disappearing, or surviving. Most of the abundant species in

SUBMITTER: Dottorini G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8271747 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature