Effects of Partial Saturation on Nitrogen Removal and Bacterial Community in Vertical-Flow Constructed Wetlands

Abstract The laboratory-scale pilot of constructed wetlands has been in operation for six months; (1) an unsaturated vertical flow constructed wetland (UVF-CW), this system was used to represent the classic vertical constructed wetlands, (2) a saturated vertical flow constructed wetland (SVF-CW), to evaluate the effects of the saturated condition on nitrogen removal and composition of the microbial community. The results showed that the saturation condition positiveley influenced the removal efficiencies of the nitrogen,, the aeverage removal rate of the total kjeldahl nitrogen increased from 56% in unsaturated vertical flow constructed wetland (UVF-CW) to 63% in saturated vertical flow constructed wetland ( SVF-CW). In addition, the microbial communities also was affected by the saturation condition, the relative abundances of nitrifying bacterium in UVF-CW are 13.8% (Nitrosomonas), 7.2% (Nitrosospira), 18.1% (Nitrospira) and 15.3% (Nitrobacter). In contrast, in SVF-CW, Nitrosomonas, Nitrosospira, Nitrospira and Nitrobacter only accounted for 6.8%, 5.6%, 7.4% and 10.6% respectively. However, the saturation condition seemed to increase denitrifying bacterium more than three times, in unsaturated vertical flow constructed wetland, only Pseudomonas (6.5%) and Paracoccus (4.85%) were detected, but in saturated vertical flow constructed wetland (SVF-CW), the abundance of Pseudomonas (13.08%) and Paracoccus (9.74%) were increased, and three other groups of denitrifying bacteria were also detected as Zoogloea (3.32%), Thauera (5.41%) and Thiobacillus (3).