Complete nitrification: insights into the ecophysiology of comammox Nitrospira.

Nitrification, the oxidation of ammonia via nitrite to nitrate, has been considered to be a stepwise process mediated by two distinct functional groups of microorganisms. The identification of complete nitrifying Nitrospira challenged not only the paradigm of labor division in nitrification, it also raises fundamental questions regarding the environmental distribution, diversity, and ecological significance of complete nitrifiers compared to canonical nitrifying microorganisms. Recent genomic and physiological surveys identified factors controlling their ecology and niche specialization, which thus potentially regulate abundances and population dynamics of the different nitrifying guilds. This review summarizes the recently obtained insights into metabolic differences of the known nitrifiers and discusses these in light of potential functional adaptation and niche differentiation between canonical and complete nitrifiers.

Effect of carrier particle size on enrichment and shift in nitrifier community behaviors for treating increased strength wastewater.

In activated sludge systems, adding carriers can improve nitrifier enrichment. Different attachment area induced by different particle sizes of carriers may result in different nitrifier community. This research investigated the effect of different particle sizes of coal ash on nitrifier enrichment treating increased strength wastewater. Results indicated efficient nitrifying coal ash was obtained with smaller coal ash. The ammonia removal rates reached over 98%, which outclassed that in negative control (63.28%), and no nitrite accumulated in these systems under high nitrogen concentration of 1123.35 mg N/L. The high-throughput sequencing assays indicated carriers changed the microbial community structure significantly, thus facilitated the nitrification capacity. Increase abundance of nitrifier has a negative correlation with particle size of carriers. Nitrosomonas became the biggest beneficiary, which maximum composed 50.29% in fillers system and only 13.69% in negative control, whereas the number of Nitrobacter (less than 3.04%) became much lower than ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB). However, the shift of microbial structures, large number of Dokdonella for instance, may guarantee the complete nitrification in systems with smaller carriers. Batch experiments showed a high dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration (4 mg/L) and slightly alkaline condition (pH 8.0) had a positive effect on nitrifying coal ash. PRACTITIONER POINTS: The increase size of nitrifier has a negative correlation with particle size of coal ash. The smaller coal ash reduces the adverse effect of high nitrogen on nitrification. The ammonia removal rate reached 99.82% with influent of 1123.35 mg NH 4 + - N /L in the smallest carriers system.

Total inorganic nitrogen removal during the partial/complete nitrification for treating domestic wastewater: Removal pathways and main influencing factors.

Achieving nitrite accumulation was considered as the prerequisite of ANAMMOX, which hindered the application of ANAMMOX. In this study, total inorganic nitrogen (TIN) removal during the partial/complete nitrification was studied in a lab-scale sequencing batch reactor (SBR) for treating domestic wastewater. The results showed TIN was removed by denitrification, ANAMMOX and N2O emission during the partial/complete nitrification. AOB, AOA, Nitrobacter (NB), Nitrospira (NS), AnAOB and DNB were coexisted in the partial/complete nitrification. The microbial competition among these functional communities determined the type of nitrification, TIN removal and pathways. Since low DO concentrations benefits Nitrospira growth, the partial nitrification was damaged. After long-term operation, AOB gradually accommodated the low DO concentration. When Vmax,AOB (the maximum specific reaction rate of AOB) higher than Vmax,NOB (the maximum specific reaction rate of NOB), a part of nitrite was reduced by DNB and AnAOB. Therefore, TIN was removed during the complete nitrification.