Nitrogen removal bacterial communities characteristics and dynamics at lab-scale reactors

Nitrogen as a biogenic compound has to be removed from wastewater to protect the aquatic environment against eutrophication. Bacteria performing its removal-nitrifiers, denitrifiers, and anammox bacteria-coexist in biological wastewater treatment plants regardless of their technological configuration. However, the dynamics and composition of the particular community depends not only on the technology used but also on the physiochemical parameters, such as pH, temperature, and wastewater and seeding sludge composition. In this chapter we described nitrogen removal bacteria communities from the point of their composition and dynamics according to the lab-scale wastewater treatment technology used. In all investigated systems all nitrogen removal bacteria mentioned above coexist in variable proportions and the community dynamics was usually linked to the sort of wastewater technology and seeding sludge used. Also at a large number of wastewater systems ammonia-oxidizing Archaea and Nitrospirae, regarded to be comammox bacteria, were present.