Chlorine disinfectant significantly changed microfauna habitat, community structure, and colonization mode in wastewater treatment plants

作者：Yuening Zhong, Yibo Zhang, Qiyue Meng, Haoyu Zhang, Zhenbing Wu, Chenyuan Dang, Jie Fu · 发表于：Applied and Environmental Microbiology · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1128/aem.01517-24 · 被引用次数：6 · 研究领域：Wastewater Treatment and Nitrogen Removal、Water Treatment and Disinfection、Fecal contamination and water quality

During the coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic, excessive chlorine disinfectants have been used to block the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2, resulting in large amounts of residual disinfectants entering wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) through sewage systems. So far, no relevant research has been conducted on the impact of chlorine disinfectants on microfauna, an important microbial component in activated sludge treatment systems. This study comprehensively investigated the changes in microfauna habitat, community structure, and colonization mode under the chlorine stress by combining the full-scale WWTP survey and laboratory-scale sequencing batch reactor experiments. The results showed that chlorine disinfectants significantly changed the community structure of microfauna, including decrease in sedentary ciliates and increase in free-living ciliates, amoebas, and flagellates. Besides the disinfection effect of chlorine disinfectants, the microfauna community was also influenced by changes in habitat and bacterial community. The loose structure and excessive extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) of activated sludge caused by chlorination would impact the colonization of sedentary ciliates, while it was conducive to the survival of free-living ciliates due to their predation on EPS as the nutrients. Bacteria in the activated sludge had strong interactions with protozoa, and their changes under chlorine stress directly affected the protozoan commu...