Selective elimination of bacterial faecal indicators in the Schmutzdecke of slow sand filtration columns

Slow sand filtration (SSF) is an effective low-tech water treatment method for pathogen and particle removal. Yet despite its application for centuries, it has been uncertain to which extent pathogenic microbes are removed by mechanical filtration or due to ecological interactions such as grazing an...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied microbiology and biotechnology 2015-12, Vol.99 (23), p.10323-10332
Main Authors: Pfannes, Kristina R, Langenbach, Kilian M. W, Pilloni, Giovanni, Stührmann, Torben, Euringer, Kathrin, Lueders, Tillmann, Neu, Thomas R, Müller, Jochen A, Kästner, Matthias, Meckenstock, Rainer U
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bacterial Load
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Biota
Biotechnology
Chemical oxygen demand
Community composition
community structure
E coli
Ecology
Effluents
Enterococcus faecalis
Enterococcus faecalis - isolation & purification
Environmental Biotechnology
Escherichia coli
Escherichia coli - isolation & purification
European Union
Fecal coliforms
Filtration
Filtration - methods
grazing
Laboratories
Life Sciences
Microbial activity
microbial communities
Microbial Genetics and Genomics
Microbiology
microorganisms
nutrients
Particle size
Pathogens
Sand
Sand & gravel
wastewater
wastewater treatment
Wastewater treatment plants
Water Microbiology
Water Pollutants
Water purification
Water Purification - methods
Water quality
Water treatment
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Summary:Slow sand filtration (SSF) is an effective low-tech water treatment method for pathogen and particle removal. Yet despite its application for centuries, it has been uncertain to which extent pathogenic microbes are removed by mechanical filtration or due to ecological interactions such as grazing and competition for nutrients. In this study, we quantified the removal of bacterial faecal indicators, Escherichia coli and Enterococcus faecalis, from secondary effluent of a wastewater treatment plant and analysed the microbial community composition in compartments of laboratory model SSF columns. The columns were packed with different sand grain sizes and eliminated 1.6–2.3 log units of faecal indicators, which translated into effluents of bathing water quality according to the EU directive (
ISSN:0175-7598
1432-0614
DOI:10.1007/s00253-015-6882-9