title: Prolonged starvation and subsequent recovery of nitrification process in a simulated photovoltaic aeration SBR.
abstract: The ability of a new SBR (sequencing batch reactor) based on simulating photovoltaic aeration for maintaining nitrification activity under a 25-day starvation period was studied. The activity and abundance of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) and the diversity of AOB were investigated. The measured biomass decay rates were 0.017 day(-1) and 0.029 day(-1) for AOB and NOB, respectively. These decay rates correlated well with AOB and NOB population quantified by real-time PCR. The recovery of ammonia oxidation rate and nitrite oxidation rate needed 4 and 7 days, respectively, indicating that NOB was more affected than AOB by starvation conditions. According to the real-time PCR results, Nitrospira was the dominant NOB in the reactor. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that Nitrosomonas oligotropha cluster was the dominant major cluster before and after starvation. Moreover, Pareto-Lorenz evenness distribution curves were plotted to interpret the interspecies abundance of AOB; the results suggested that AOB community possessed a balanced structure with medium Fo (Functional organization). Thus, the community can potentially deal with changing environmental conditions (e.g., starvation) and preserve its functionality according to the concept of functional redundancy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Engineering, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, China.
authors.forename: Fangshu
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Anding
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Boyin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Zhibo
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.forename: Chunhong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Beihai
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhou
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000641:Ammonia / Q000378:metabolism; D019149:Bioreactors; D003470:Culture Media; D046508:Culture Techniques; D058465:Nitrification; D009573:Nitrites / Q000378:metabolism; D009606:Nitrosomonas / Q000378:metabolism*; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D010802:Phylogeny
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media; D009573:Nitrites; D000641:Ammonia