Abstract
Ammonium can be removed as dinitrogen gas by cooperating aerobic and anaerobic ammonium-oxidizing bacteria (AerAOB and AnAOB). The goal of this study was to verify putative mutual benefits for aggregated AerAOB and AnAOB in a stagnant freshwater environment. In an ammonium fed water column, the biological oxygen consumption rate was, on average, 76 kg O2 ha−1 day−1. As the oxygen transfer rate of an abiotic control column was only 17 kg O2 ha−1 day−1, biomass activity enhanced the oxygen transfer. Increasing the AnAOB gas production increased the oxygen consumption rate with more than 50% as a result of enhanced vertical movement of the biomass. The coupled decrease in dissolved oxygen concentration increased the diffusional oxygen transfer from the atmosphere in the water. Physically preventing the biomass from rising to the upper water layer instantaneously decreased oxygen and ammonium consumption and even led to the occurrence of some sulfate reduction. Floating of the biomass was further confirmed to be beneficial, as this allowed for the development of a higher AerAOB and AnAOB activity, compared to settled biomass. Overall, the results support mutual benefits for aggregated AerAOB and AnAOB, derived from the biomass uplifting effect of AnAOB gas production.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abeliovich A (1987) Nitrifying bacteria in waste-water reservoirs. Appl Environ Microbiol 53:754–760
Bird RB, Stewart WE, Lightfoot EN (2002) Transport phenomena. Wiley, New York
Bodelier PLE, Libochant JA, Blom C, Laanbroek HJ (1996) Dynamics of nitrification and denitrification in root-oxygenated sediments and adaptation of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria to low-oxygen or anoxic habitats. Appl Environ Microbiol 62:4100–4107
Dalsgaard T, Thamdrup B, Canfield DE (2005) Anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) in the marine environment. Res Microbiol 156:457–464
deGraaf AAV, deBruijn P, Robertson LA, Jetten MSM, Kuenen JG (1996) Autotrophic growth of anaerobic ammonium-oxidizing micro-organisms in a fluidized bed reactor. Microbiology-Uk 142:2187–2196
Egli K, Fanger U, Alvarez PJJ, Siegrist H, van der Meer JR, Zehnder AJB (2001) Enrichment and characterization of an anammox bacterium from a rotating biological contactor treating ammonium-rich leachate. Arch Microbiol 175:198–207
Furukawa K, Lieu PK, Tokitoh H, Fujii T (2006) Development of single-stage nitrogen removal using anammox and partial nitritation (SNAP) and its treatment performances. Water Sci Technol 53:83–90
Gelda RK, Auer MT, Effler SW, Chapra SC, Storey ML (1996) Determination of reaeration coefficients: whole-lake approach. J Environ Eng-Asce 122:269–275
Greenberg AE, Clesceri LS, Eaton AD (1992) Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater. American Public Health Association, Washington DC
Hastings RC, Saunders JR, Hall GH, Pickup RW, McCarthy AJ (1998) Application of molecular biological techniques to a seasonal study of ammonia oxidation in a eutrophic freshwater lake. Appl Environ Microbiol 64:3674–3682
Helmer-Madhok C, Schmid M, Filipov E, Gaul T, Hippen A, Rosenwinkel KH, Seyfried CF, Wagner M, Kunst S (2002) Deammonification in biofilm systems: population structure and function. Water Sci Technol 46:223–231
Jones ML, Liehr SK, Classen JJ, Robarge W (2000) Mechanisms of dinitrogen gas formation in anaerobic lagoons. Adv Environ Res 4:133–139
Kalyuzhnyi S, Gladchenko M, Mulder A, Versprille B (2006) DEAMOX—new biological nitrogen removal process based on anaerobic ammonia oxidation coupled to sulphide-driven conversion of nitrate into nitrite. Water Res 40:3637–3645
Kowalchuk GA, Stephen JR (2001) Ammonia-oxidizing bacteria: a model for molecular microbial ecology. Annu Rev Microbiol 55:485–529
Kuai LP, Verstraete W (1998) Ammonium removal by the oxygen-limited autotrophic nitrification–denitrification system. Appl Environ Microbiol 64:4500–4506
Laanbroek HJ, Gerards S (1993) Competition for limiting amounts of oxygen between Nitrosomonas europaea and Nitrobacter winogradskyi grown in mixed continuous cultures. Arch Microbiol 159:453–459
Madigan MT, Martinko JM (2006) Brock biology of microorganisms, 11th edn. Prentice hall upper saddle river
Manconi I, van der Maas P, Lens PNL (2006) Effect of sulfur compounds on biological reduction of nitric oxide in aqueous Fe(II)EDTA(2-) solutions. Nitric Oxide-Biology and Chemistry 15:40–49
Marquez AL, Wild G, Midoux N (1994) A review of recent chemical techniques for the determination of the volumetric mass-transfer coefficient K(L)a in gas-liquid reactors. Chem Eng Process 33:247–260
Meyer RL, Risgaard-Petersen N, Allen DE (2005) Correlation between anammox activity and microscale distribution of nitrite in a subtropical mangrove sediment. Appl Environ Microbiol 71:6142–6149
Pauer JJ, Auer MT (2000) Nitrification in the water column and sediment of a hypereutrophic lake and adjoining river system. Water Res 34:1247–1254
Penton CR, Devol AH, Tiedje JM (2006) Molecular evidence for the broad distribution of anaerobic ammonium-oxidizing bacteria in freshwater and marine sediments. Appl Environ Microbiol 72:6829–6832
Philips S, Wyffels S, Sprengers R, Verstraete W (2002) Oxygen-limited autotrophic nitrification/denitrification by ammonia oxidisers enables upward motion towards more favourable conditions. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 59:557–566
Pynaert K, Smets BF, Wyffels S, Beheydt D, Siciliano SD, Verstraete W (2003) Characterization of an autotrophic nitrogen-removing biofilm from a highly loaded lab-scale rotating biological contactor. Appl Environ Microbiol 69:3626–3635
Pynaert K, Smets BF, Beheydt D, Verstraete W (2004) Start-up of autotrophic nitrogen removal reactors via sequential biocatalyst addition. Environ Sci Technol 38:1228–1235
Ro KS, Hunt PG (2006) A new unified equation for wind-driven surficial oxygen transfer into stationary water bodies. Tr ASABE 49:1615–1622
Ro KS, Hunt PG, Poach ME (2006) Wind-driven surficial oxygen transfer and dinitrogen gas emission from treatment lagoons. J Environ Sci Health Part A—Toxic/Hazardous Substances & Environ Eng 41:1627–1638
Schubert CJ, Durisch-Kaiser E, Wehrli B, Thamdrup B, Lam P, Kuypers MMM (2006) Anaerobic ammonium oxidation in a tropical freshwater system (Lake Tanganyika). Environ Microbiol 8:1857–1863
Sears K, Alleman JE, Barnard JL, Oleszkiewiez JA (2004) Impacts of reduced sulfur components on active and resting ammonia oxidizers. J Ind Microbiol Biotechnol 31:369–378
Smorczewski WT, Schmidt EL (1991) Numbers, activities, and diversity of autotrophic ammonia-oxidizing bacteria in a fresh-water, eutrophic lake sediment. Can J Microbiol 37:828–833
Stief P, De Beer D, Neumann D (2002) Small-scale distribution of interstitial nitrite in freshwater sediment microcosms: The role of nitrate and oxygen availability, and sediment permeability. Microb Ecol 43:367–378
Strous M, Heijnen JJ, Kuenen JG, Jetten MSM (1998) The sequencing batch reactor as a powerful tool for the study of slowly growing anaerobic ammonium-oxidizing microorganisms. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 50:589–596
Third KA, Sliekers AO, Kuenen JG, Jetten MSM (2001) The CANON system (completely autotrophic nitrogen-removal over nitrite) under ammonium limitation: Interaction and competition between three groups of bacteria. Syst Appl Microbiol 24:588–596
Trimmer M, Nicholls JC, Deflandre B (2003) Anaerobic ammonium oxidation measured in sediments along the Thames estuary, United Kingdom. Appl Environ Microbiol 69:6447–6454
Vlaeminck SE, Geets J, Vervaeren H, Boon N, Verstraete W (2007) Reactivation of aerobic and anaerobic ammonium oxidizers in OLAND biomass after long-term storage. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol, in press, DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-006-0770-2
Watt GW, Chrisp JD (1952) Spectrophotometric method for determination of hydrazine. Anal Chem 24:2006–2008
Wett B (2006) Solved upscaling problems for implementing deammonification of rejection water. Water Sci Technol 53:121–128
Whitby CB, Saunders JR, Pickup RW, McCarthy AJ (2001) A comparison of ammonia-oxidiser populations in eutrophic and oligotrophic basins of a large freshwater lake. Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek Int J Gen Mol Microbiol 79:179–188
Acknowledgments
This research was funded by a PhD grant (aspirant) for Siegfried E. Vlaeminck from the Fund of Scientific Research-Flanders (Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (FWO) Vlaanderen). The authors gratefully thank Greet Van de Velde for technical support and Peter De Schryver, Ilse Forrez, and Bram Pauwels for the many critical and helpful suggestions.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Vlaeminck, S.E., Dierick, K., Boon, N. et al. Vertical migration of aggregated aerobic and anaerobic ammonium oxidizers enhances oxygen uptake in a stagnant water layer. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 75, 1455–1461 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-007-0944-6
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-007-0944-6