Aquaflow Experiment 2021 with mesocosms receiving treated wastewater
Wastewater treatment processes can eliminate many pollutants, yet remainder pollutants contain organic compounds and microorganisms released into ecosystems. These remainder pollutants have the potential to adversely impact downstream ecosystem processes, but their presence is currently not being monitored. This study was set out with the aim of investigating the effectiveness and sensitivity of non-target screening of chemical compounds, eukaryotic metatranscriptomics, 18S V9 rRNA gene, and full-length 16S rRNA gene metabarcoding techniques for detecting treated wastewater in receiving waters. We aimed at assessing the impact of introducing 33% treated wastewater into a triplicated large-scale mesocosm setup during a 10-day exposure period.