A metabolomics perspective on the effect of environmental micro and nanoplastics on living organisms: A review.

The increasing trend regarding the use of plastics has arisen an exponential concern on the fate of their derived products to the environment. Among these derivatives, microplastics and nanoplastics (MNPs) have been featured for their associated environmental impact due to their low molecular size and high surface area, which has prompted their ubiquitous transference among all environmental interfaces. Due to the heterogenous chemical composition of MNPs, the study of these particles has focused a high number of studies, as a result of the myriad of associated physicochemical properties that contribute to the co-transference of a wide range of contaminants, thus becoming a major challenge for the scientific community.

Microbial Ecology of Granular Biofilm Technologies for Wastewater Treatment: A Review.

Nowadays, the discharge of wastewater is a global concern due to the damage caused to human and environmental health. Wastewater treatment has progressed to provide environmentally and economically sustainable technologies. The biological treatment of wastewater is one of the fundamental bases of this field, and the employment of new technologies based on granular biofilm systems is demonstrating success in tackling the environmental issues derived from the discharge of wastewater.

Deciphering the Role of WWTPs in Cold Environments as Hotspots for the Dissemination of Antibiotic Resistance Genes.

Cold environments are the most widespread extreme habitats in the world. However, the role of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in the cryosphere as hotspots in antibiotic resistance dissemination has not been well established. Hence, a snapshot of the resistomes of WWTPs in cold environments, below 5 °C, was provided to elucidate their role in disseminating antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) to the receiving waterbodies.

Treatment of High-Polyphenol-Content Waters Using Biotechnological Approaches: The Latest Update.

Polyphenols and their intermediate metabolites are natural compounds that are spread worldwide. Polyphenols are antioxidant agents beneficial for human health, but exposure to some of these compounds can be harmful to humans and the environment. A number of industries produce and discharge polyphenols in water effluents.

The dangerous transporters: A study of microplastic-associated bacteria passing through municipal wastewater treatment.

Microplastics (MPs) provide a stable and protective habitat for diverse wastewater bacteria, including pathogenic and antibiotic-resistant species. Therefore, MPs may potentially transport these bacteria through wastewater treatment steps to the environment and far distances. This study investigated bacterial communities of MP-associated bacteria from different stages of municipal wastewater treatment processes to evaluate the potential negative effect of these biofilms on the environment.

Effects of sulphur amino acids on the size and structure of microbial communities of aerobic granular sludge bioreactors.

Granular activated sludge has been described as a promising tool in treating wastewater. However, the effect of high concentrations of sulphur amino acids, cysteine and methionine, in the evolution, development and stability of AGS-SBRs (aerobic granular sludge in sequential batch reactors) and their microbial communities is not well-established. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate microbial communities' size, structure and dynamics in two AGS-SBRs fed with two different concentrations of amino acids (50 and 100 mg L of both amino acids).

Could Harbour Halophilic Members Able to Withstand Very Broad Salinity Variations?

is currently described as a genus including only one species of slightly halophilic marine bacteria. Although some works revealed its presence in some hypersaline environments, the information on its habitat preference is still scant. This work investigated presence in selected ponds of the Saline di Tarquinia marine saltern and in the seawater intake area.

Total and Metabolically Active Microbial Community of Aerobic Granular Sludge Systems Operated in Sequential Batch Reactors: Effect of Pharmaceutical Compounds.

Two aerobic granular sludge (AGS) sequential batch reactors were operated at a mild (15 °C) temperature for 180 days. One of those bioreactors was exposed to a mixture of diclofenac, naproxen, trimethoprim, and carbamazepine. The AGS system, operating under pressure from emerging contaminants, showed a decrease in COD, BOD, and TN removal capacity, mainly observed during the first 100 days, in comparison with the removal ratios detected in the control bioreactor.

Evaluating the nitrogen-contaminated groundwater treatment by a denitrifying granular sludge bioreactor: effect of organic matter loading.

A sequential bed granular bioreactor was adapted to treat nitrate-polluted synthetic groundwater under anaerobic conditions and agitation with denitrification gas, achieving very efficient performance in total nitrogen removal at influent organic carbon concentrations of 1 g L (80-90%) and 0.5 g L (70-80%) sodium acetate, but concentrations below 0.5 g L caused accumulation of nitrite and nitrate and led to system failure (30-40% removal).

Polar Arctic Circle biomass enhances performance and stability of aerobic granular sludge systems operated under different temperatures.

Three bioreactors were inoculated with Polar Arctic Circle-activated sludge, started-up and operated for 150 days at 8, 15 and 26 °C. Removal performances and granular conformation were similar at steady-state, but higher stability from start-up was found when operating at 8 °C. Important changes in the eukaryotic and prokaryotic populations caused by operational temperature were observed, being fungi dominant at 8 °C and 15 °C, while that ciliated organisms were found at 26 °C.

Performance and microbial community structure of an aerobic granular sludge system at different phenolic acid concentrations.

The present work aims to use aerobic granular sludge technology for the treatment of wastewater containing high organic matter loads and a mixture of phenolic compounds normally present in olive washing water. The physicochemical performance of five bioreactors treating different concentrations of mixture of phenolic acid was monitored to observe the response of the systems. The bioreactors that operated at 50, 100 and 300 mg L did not show relevant changes in terms of performance and granules properties, showing high ratio of phenolic compound removal ratio.

Microbial ecology dynamics of a partial nitritation bioreactor with Polar Arctic Circle activated sludge operating at low temperature.

A lab-scale partial nitritation SBR was operated at 11 °C for 300 days used for the treatment of high-ammonium wastewater, which was inoculated with activated sludge from Rovaniemi WWTP (located in Polar Arctic Circle) in order to evaluate the influence the temperature on the performance, stability and dynamics of its microbial community. The partial nitritation achieved steady-state long-term operation and granulation process was not affected despite the low temperature and high ammonia concentration. The steady conditions were reached after 60 days of operation where the granular biomass was fully-formed and the 50%-50% of ammonium-nitrite effluent was successful achieved.

Influence of salinity cycles in bioreactor performance and microbial community structure of membrane-based tidal-like variable salinity wastewater treatment systems.

A membrane bioreactor and two hybrid moving bed bioreactor-membrane bioreactors were operated for the treatment of variable salinity wastewater, changing in cycles of 6-h wastewater base salinity and 6-h maximum salinity (4.5 and 8.5 mS cm electric conductivity, which relate to 2.

Pollutants degradation performance and microbial community structure of aerobic granular sludge systems using inoculums adapted at mild and low temperature.

Three aerobic granular sequencing batch reactors were inoculated using different inocula from Finland, Spain and a mix of both in order to investigate the effect over the degradation performance and the microbial community structure. The Finnish inoculum achieved a faster granulation and a higher depollution performance within the first two month of operation. However, after 90 days of operation, similar physico-chemical values were observed.

New concepts in anammox processes for wastewater nitrogen removal: recent advances and future prospects.

The discovering of anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) process led to the development of autotrophic nitrogen removal systems for the treatment of effluents with low C:N rate. The anammox processes provide an efficient way to remove high concentrations of ammonium compounds from industrial and urban wastewater and covert them to dinitrogen. Nevertheless, recently obtained results suggest new ways for research on autotrophic nitrogen removal system including possibility for low temperature operation, adaptation to high organic matter loads and antibiotics inhibition effect.

Performance and microbial community structure of a polar Arctic Circle aerobic granular sludge system operating at low temperature.

The aim of this work was to study the performance and microbial community structure of a polar Arctic Circle aerobic granular sludge (AGS) system operating at low temperature. Thus, an AGS bioreactor was operated at 7, 5 and 3 °C of temperature using a cold-adapted sludge from Lapland. At 5 °C, it yielded acceptable conversion rates, in terms of nitrogen, phosphorous, and organic matter.

Microbial ecology of full-scale wastewater treatment systems in the Polar Arctic Circle: Archaea, Bacteria and Fungi.

Seven full-scale biological wastewater treatment systems located in the Polar Arctic Circle region in Finland were investigated to determine their Archaea, Bacteria and Fungi community structure, and their relationship with the operational conditions of the bioreactors by the means of quantitative PCR, massive parallel sequencing and multivariate redundancy analysis. The results showed dominance of Archaea and Bacteria members in the bioreactors. The activated sludge systems showed strong selection of Bacteria but not for Archaea and Fungi, as suggested by diversity analyses.

Start-up and operation of an aerobic granular sludge system under low working temperature inoculated with cold-adapted activated sludge from Finland.

An aerobic granular sludge system has been started-up and operated at 7°C temperature using cold-adapted activated sludge as inoculum. The system could form granular biomass due to batch operation allowing for just 5-3min of biomass sedimentation. Scanning electron microscopy showed that fungi helped in the granular biomass formation in the early stages of the granule formation.

Process performance and bacterial community dynamics of partial-nitritation biofilters subjected to different concentrations of cysteine amino acid.

Partial-nitritation processes are used for the biological treatment of high nitrogen-low organic carbon effluents, such as anaerobic digestion reject water. The release of certain products generated during the anaerobic digestion process, such as amino acids, could potentially reduce the performance of these partial-nitritation bioprocesses. To investigate this, four partial-nitritation biofilters were subjected to continuous addition of 0, 150, 300, and 500 mg L cysteine amino acid in their influents.

Microbial community analysis of a full-scale DEMON bioreactor.

Full-scale applications of autotrophic nitrogen removal technologies for the treatment of digested sludge liquor have proliferated during the last decade. Among these technologies, the aerobic/anoxic deammonification process (DEMON) is one of the major applied processes. This technology achieves nitrogen removal from wastewater through anammox metabolism inside a single bioreactor due to alternating cycles of aeration.