Dynamics of microbial diversity profiles in waters of different qualities. Approximation to an ecological quality indicator

• Published in: The Science of the total environment 2014-01, Vol.468-469 (15), p.1154-1161
• Main Authors: Garrido, L., Sánchez, O., Ferrera, I., Tomàs, N., Mas, J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analysis of Variance; Bacterial communities; Bacteroidetes - genetics; Bacteroidetes - growth & development; Base Sequence; beta-Proteobacteria; Betaproteobacteria - genetics; Betaproteobacteria - growth & development; Computational Biology; Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis; DGGE; DNA Fingerprinting; effluents; gamma-Proteobacteria; Gammaproteobacteria - genetics; Gammaproteobacteria - growth & development; groundwater; Microbiota; Molecular Sequence Data; Nitrospira; Polymerase Chain Reaction; Reclaimed water; RNA, Ribosomal - genetics; Sequence Analysis, RNA; Time Factors; Waste Water - microbiology; wastewater treatment; Water Microbiology - standards; water quality; Water Quality - standards; Water quality index; water shortages
• ISSN: 0048-9697; 1879-1026
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2013.08.065

Over the past two decades, the amount of reclaimed water has increased throughout the world to face the current water shortage, and as a consequence there is an increasing interest to develop good indicators of water quality, beyond the traditional fecal indicators. In order to meet this need, in this work the microbial profiles of different wastewater treatment plant effluents, both secondary and tertiary, were studied and compared with water samples from an uncontaminated natural aquifer. Taking into account the most abundant phylogenetic groups found in these water samples, we calculated the Bacteroidetes, Gammaproteobacteria and Nitrospira/Betaproteobacteria (BGN:β) ratio and found significant differences between the mean ratios of the four water qualities. The secondary effluent ratios were never below 1.3 and the tertiary effluent and groundwater ratios were never over 0.85. Furthermore, calculation of this index with previous published data supports our results and indicates that the BGN:β ratio is a possible alternative indicator of water quality. •Aimed to find an alternative indicator of water quality with ecological information•Compared the community composition of different types of water•Analyzed the bacterial diversity profiles over time•Propose Bacteroidetes, Gamma and Nitrospira/Beta ratio as an indicator•Correlation with water quality in our results and in published data