Gene abundances of AOA,AOB,and anammox controlled by groundwater chemistry of the Pearl River Delta,China

Ammonia-oxidizing archaea(AOA),ammonia-oxidizing bacteria(AOB),and anaerobic ammonia-oxidation(anammox)bacteria are very important contributors to nitrogen cycling in natural environments.Functional gene abundances of these microbes were believed to be well relevant to N-cycling in groundwater systems,especially in the Pearl River Delta(PRD)groundwater with unique high intrinsic ammonia concentrations.In this research,20 sediment samples from two in the PRD were collected for porewater chemistry analysis and quantification of N-cycling related genes,including archaeal and bacterial amoA gene and anammox 16S ribosomal Ribonucleic Acid(rRNA)gene.Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction(qPCR)results showed that gene abundances of AOA,AOB,and anammox bacteria ranged from 3.13×10^(5)to 3.21×10^(7),1.83×10^(4)to 2.74×10^(6),and 9.27×10^(4)to 8.96×10^(6)copies/g in the sediment of the groundwater system,respectively.Anammox bacteria and AOA dominated in aquitards and aquifers,respectively,meanwhile,the aquitard-aquifer interfaces were demonstrated as ammonium-oxidizing hotspots in the aspect of gene numbers.Gene abundances of nitrifiers were analyzed with geochemistry profiles.Correlations between gene numbers and environmental variables indicated that the gene abundances were impacted by hydrogeological conditions,and microbial-derived ammonium loss was dominated by AOA in the northwest PRD and by anammox bacteria in the southeast PRD.

Inhibitive effects of chlortetracycline on performance of the nitritation-anaerobic ammonium oxidation(anammox)process and strategies for recovery

The short-and long-term effects of chlortetracycline（CTC） on the nitritation-anaerobic ammonium oxidation（anammox） process were evaluated. The half maximal inhibitory concentration of CTC in the batch tests of the nitritation-anammox process was 278.91 mg/L at an exposure time of 12 hr. The long-term effects of CTC on the process were examined in a continuous-flow nitritation-anammox reactor. Within 14 days, the nitrogen removal rate significantly decreased from 0.61 to 0.25 kg N/m^3/day with 60 mg/L CTC in the influent.The performance suppressed by CTC barely recovered, even after CTC was removed from the influent. Furthermore, the inhibition of CTC also reduced the relative abundance of ammonium oxidizing bacteria（AOB） and anaerobic ammonium oxidizing bacteria（An AOB）in the reactor, resulting in both a decreased amount of and an imbalance between AOB and An AOB. When fresh anammox sludge was reseeded into the nitritation-anammox reactor,the nitrogen removal rate recovered to 0.09 ± 0.03 kg N/m3/day.