Influence of redox condition and inoculum on micropollutant biodegradation by soil and activated sludge communities

Rita H.R. Branco, Roel J.W. Meulepas, H.P.J. van Veelen, Huub H.M. Rijnaarts, Nora B. Sutton*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Micropollutant biodegradation is selected by the interplay among environmental conditions and microbial community composition. This study investigated how different electron acceptors, and different inocula with varying microbial diversity, pre-exposed to distinct redox conditions and micropollutants, affect micropollutant biodegradation. Four tested inocula comprised of agricultural soil (Soil), sediment from a ditch in an agricultural field (Ditch), activated sludge from a municipal WWTP (Mun AS), and activated sludge from an industrial WWTP (Ind AS). Removal of 16 micropollutants was investigated for each inoculum under aerobic, nitrate reducing, iron reducing, sulfate reducing, and methanogenic conditions. Micropollutant biodegradation was highest under aerobic conditions with removal of 12 micropollutants. Most micropollutants were biodegraded by Soil (n = 11) and Mun AS inocula (n = 10). A positive correlation was observed between inoculum community richness and the number of different micropollutants a microbial community initially degraded. The redox conditions to which a microbial community had been exposed appeared to positively affect micropollutant biodegradation performance more than pre-exposure to micropollutants. Additionally, depletion of the organic carbon present in the inocula resulted in lower micropollutant biodegradation and overall microbial activities, suggesting that i) an additional carbon source is needed to promote micropollutant biodegradation; and ii) overall microbial activity can be a good indirect indicator for micropollutant biodegradation activity. These results could help to develop novel micropollutant removal strategies.

Original languageEnglish
Article number165233
JournalScience of the Total Environment
Volume897
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Nov 2023

Keywords

  • Microbial activity
  • Microbial community richness
  • Micropollutant biodegradation
  • Redox conditions

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