Impact of TiO2 and ZnO nanoparticles at predicted environmentally relevant concentrations on ammonia-oxidizing bacteria cultures under ammonia oxidation

Increased application of titanium dioxide and zinc oxide nanoparticles (nano-TiO2 and nano-ZnO) raises concerns related to their environmental impacts. The effects that such nanoparticles have on environmental processes and the bacteria that carry them out are largely unknown. In this study, ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) enrichment cultures, grown from surface sediments taken from an estuary wetland in Fujian Province, China, were spiked with nano-TiO2 and nano-ZnO (with an average size of 32 and 43 nm, respectively) at predicted environmentally relevant concentrations (<= 2 mg L-1) to determine their impacts on ammonia oxidation and the mechanisms involved. Results showed that higher nano-TiO2 concentrations significantly inhibited ammonia oxidation in enrichment cultures. It is noteworthy that the average ammonia oxidation rate was significantly correlated to the Shannon index, the Simpson's index, and AOB abundance. This suggested that ammonia oxidation inhibition primarily resulted from a reduction of AOB biodiversity and abundance. However, AOB biodiversity and abundance as well as the average ammonia oxidation rate were not inhibited by nano-ZnO at predicted environmentally relevant concentrations. Accordingly, an insignificant correlation was established between biodiversity and abundance of the AOB amoA gene and the average ammonia oxidation rate under nano-ZnO treatments. AOB present in samples belonged to the beta-Proteobacteria class with an affinity close to Nitrosospira and Nitrosomonas genera. This suggested that identified impacts of nano-TiO2 and nano-ZnO on ammonia oxidation processes can be extrapolated to some extent to natural aquatic environments. Complex impacts on AOB may result from different nanomaterials present in aquatic environments at various ambient conditions. Further investigation on how and to what extent different nanomaterials influence AOB diversity and abundance and their subsequent ammonia oxidation processes is therefore required.