Indoor heating triggers bacterial ecological links with tap water stagnation during winter: Novel insights into bacterial abundance, community metabolic activity and interactions

The overnight stagnation of tap water in plumbing systems can lead to water quality deterioration. Meanwhile, the indoor heating can improve the indoor temperature in cold areas during winter, which may affect the quality of tap water during stagnation. However, indoor heating drives bacterial ecological links with tap water stagnation during winter are not well understood. The results indicated that the water temperature increased significantly after stagnation during indoor heating periods. Moreover, the average intact cell number and total adenosine triphosphate (ATP) concentration increased 1.53-fold and 1.35-fold after stagnation, respectively (P < 0.01). In addition, the increase in the ATP per cell number indicated that the combined effects of stagnation and indoor heating could enhance the bacterial activity. Biolog data showed that the bacterial community metabolic capacity was significantly higher in stagnant water than that of fresh water. Co-occurrence networks suggested that the bacterial metabolic profile changed after stagnation during the heating periods. DNA analysis indicated that the composition of the bacterial community changed dramatically after stagnation. The abundances of potential pathogens such as Mycobacterium sp. and Pseudomonas sp. also increased after stagnation. These results will give novel insights on comprehensive understanding the combined effects of indoor heating and overnight stagnation on the water bacterial community ecology of plumbing systems, and provide a scientific basis for tap water quality management after overnight stagnation during the indoor heating periods. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The study found that after stagnation during indoor heating period, water temperature significantly increased and bacterial activity enhanced. The metabolic capacity of bacteria in stagnant water was higher than that of fresh water, and the bacterial metabolic profile changed after stagnation during heating periods.