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Biofilm microbial community structure in an urban lake utilizing reclaimed water

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Abstract

Analyses of biofilm community structure may potentially be employed for aquatic ecosystem health assessment, however, to date, biofilm diversity within urban lakes using reclaimed water has not been examined. Accordingly, the microbial community diversity and structure of biofilms from the surface of multiple matrices with varying roughness (0.1, 1.0 and 10.0 μm) were characterized using a suite of molecular techniques including scanning electron microscopy, genetic fingerprinting and phospholipid-derived fatty acid analyses. Samples were largely comprised of inorganic particles, algae and numerous bacterial species; 12 phospholipid-derived fatty acid (PLFA) types were identified, significantly less than typically associated with sewage. Both growth matrix surface roughness and biofilm growth phase were shown to concur with significantly different microbial quantity and community structures. Gram-negative bacteria bacillus i15:03OH and 18:0 were the dominant bacterial genera, collectively comprising ≈75 % of identified PLFA species content. Calculated species diversity (H) and species dominance (D) exhibited identical correlational patterns with measured water quality parameters; significant positive correlations were exhibited with respect to Mg2, while significant negative correlations were found for NO3, TP, BOD, COD, SP, PO4, SO4 and pH. Results indicate that analyses of biofilm formation and structure could be effectively used to undertake integrated assessments of the ecological health of lake systems using reclaimed water. Further work is required to elucidate the optimum conditions for sample collection and analytical interpretation.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge financial support provided by the National Natural Science Fund of China (Grant No. 51321001), the Beijing Eleventh Five-Year Research Program (Grant No. D090409004009004) and the Special Fund for Scientific Research of Water Conservancy in the Public Interest (Grant No. 201001067).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Water Resources and Civil Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100083, China

    Tianzhi Wang, Yunkai Li, Naiyang Wu & Mingchao Liang

  2. International College Beijing, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100083, China

    Tingwu Xu

  3. School of Civil and Structural Engineering, Dublin Institute of Technology, Bolton St, Dublin 7, Republic of Ireland

    Paul Hynds

Authors
  1. Tianzhi Wang
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  2. Yunkai Li
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  3. Tingwu Xu
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  4. Naiyang Wu
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  5. Mingchao Liang
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  6. Paul Hynds
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Correspondence to Yunkai Li or Paul Hynds.

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Wang, T., Li, Y., Xu, T. et al. Biofilm microbial community structure in an urban lake utilizing reclaimed water. Environ Earth Sci 75, 314 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-015-5197-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-015-5197-6

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