Responses of anammox process to elevated Fe(III) stress: Reactor performance, microbial community and functional genes

The aim of present study was to re-evaluate the impacts of elevated Fe(III) stress on anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) process. The results indicated that long-term low concentration Fe(III) (5 and 10 mg/L) exposure significantly improved the nitrogen removal efficiency of anammox process, while high concentration Fe(III) (50 and 100 mg/L) significantly deteriorated the reactor performance. Batch assays showed that the specific anammox activity, heme c content and hydrazine dehydrogenase activity were significantly increased and decreased under low and high concentration Fe(III) exposure, respectively, indicating an enhancement and inhibition of anammox activity. Moreover, the presence of high concentration Fe(III) significantly shifted the anammox community structure. Ca. Brocadia was the predominant anammox genus, whose abundance decreased from 14.26% to 8.13% as Fe(III) concentration increased from 0 to 100 mg/L. In comparison, the abundance of denitrifiers progressively increased from 3.70% to 6.68% with increasing Fe(III) concentration. These suggested that different functional bacteria differed in their responses to Fe(III) stress. Furthermore, longterm Fe(III) exposure significantly up-regulated the abundances of genes associated with nitrogen metabolism and Fe(III) reduction. Overall, the obtained findings are expected to advances our understanding of the responses of anammox process to elevated Fe(III) stress.

Automated summary

The study indicates that long-term exposure to low concentration Fe(III) can improve the nitrogen removal efficiency of the anammox process, while high Fe(III) concentrations deteriorate reactor performance. Different functional bacteria show varied responses to Fe(III) stress, with high concentrations of Fe(III) significantly altering the anammox community structure.