High density sampling reveals the spatiotemporal characteristics of microbial communities in a full-scale municipal wastewater treatment plant

Abstract

Insights into the microbial communities in municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are critical for the optimization of biological nutrient removal process. However, our understanding about the spatiotemporal characteristics of the microbial communities in WWTPs remains limited. In the present study, 264 samples were collected biweekly from four spatially independent corridors in a typical municipal WWTP. The annual compositional and metagenomic characteristics were investigated based on multiple ecological indicators using statistical tests. The results revealed that the microbial community compositions from the four corridors showed significantly high similarities, as revealed by the statistical analysis at the operational taxonomic unit (OTU) level. Consistent with the OTU level results, the functionality of the microbial communities in the four independent corridors also showed significant similarity. In comparison, the dynamics of the microbial community over the year showed two successional peaks of the microbial communities with the spatial similarity, and this resulted in three alternative stable states of the microbial communities in a calendar year. The microbial communities only drifted in July and November, suggesting an uneven community succession pattern driven by seasonal variation in environmental conditions. The functional characteristics were found to be relatively conservative compared to the microbial community succession, which revealed the decoupling between the composition and functionality of the microbial community in the municipal WWTP. The present study provides an in-depth overview of the microbial communities in a municipal WWTP and will be useful for the establishment of the connection between ecological characteristics and the operational stability of WWTPs.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Activated sludge / Microbial community / Spatial similarity / Successional pattern / Metagenomics

Highlight

	● High density spatiotemporal sampling was adopted to investigate a municipal WWTP.
	● Spatially independent corridors showed high microbial community similarities.
	● Three distinct stable states of the microbial community were observed over a year.
	● Conserved function over microbial community succession was observed in the WWTP.

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The Author(s) 2025. This article is published with open access at link.springer.com and journal.hep.com.cn