In situ structure/function studies in waste water treatment systems

As an example of the importance and the potential of in situ structure/function studies, nitrifying aggregates from different zones of a lab-scale fluidised bed reactor were analysed by microelectrode measurements of O2, NH4+, NO2-, and NO3- and in situ hybridisation targeting the 16S rRNA of the nitrifying bacteria. A shift from an ammonia oxidising to a nitrite oxidising community is present along the reactor. In the single aggregates an active nitrifying shell of about 100 µm could be related to the maximum abundance of nitrifiers in this zone. Interestingly, the main actors in this system are not representatives of the welldescribed genera Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter but some other ammonia oxidisers from the beta subclass of Proteobacteria and a thus far unknown nitrite oxidising population.