The increasing occurrence and severity of cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (HABs) in freshwater have continuously challenged the safe drinking water supply. During HAB, public attention mainly focuses on the cyanotoxins, which associated with health issues, while HAB also generated massive amounts of algal cells, increasing the loading of algal organic matter (AOM) in the drinking water treatment plants (DWTPs). AOM is an algae-derived autochthonous natural organic matter (NOM), which contains high fraction of hydrophilic and nitrogenous compounds. Conventional treatment processes, comprised of coagulation, sedimentation, and granular media filtration, are known to be ineffective in completely removing NOM, including AOM [1, 2]. Although ozone has been widely adopted by water utilities to break down complex organic compounds and reduce DBP formation, ozonation practices can adversely increase concentrations of assimilable organic carbon (AOC), which in turn can be rapidly utilized and support biofilm growth in downstream filters and drinking water distribution systems [3, 4]. Currently, remain largely unknown for the growth of biofilms under the impacts of dfferent NOM, including AOM in the filters and drinking water distribution systems (DWDSs). Therefore, the main research goal of this study is to investigate the impacts of orgniac matter on microbial biofilms in engineered drinking water systems (EDWSs).
Specifically, the first objective of this study aimed to examine how the assembly processes and their associated factors (e.g., influent characteristics, biological interactions) drive the temporal dynamics of bacterial communities in full-scale BAC filters, which underwent ozone implementation to better handle the adverse effects of HABs. The obtained results revealed that along with the increase of bacterial taxonomic richness and evenness, stochastic processes became more crucial to determine the bacterial community assembly in the summer and autumn after ozone implementation. Moreover, their corresponding networks possessed simple network structures with lower modularity than other seasons, which implied lesser biological interactions among bacterial populations. Among the monitored physiochemical properties of filter influents, temperature and nutrient bioavailability (i.e., AOC concentrations) as well as biological interactions can be crucial drivers that impact the balance between these two processes and the taxonomic diversity of bacterial communities in BAC filters.
The second objective of this study was to examine the effects of two widely present NOM, treated AOM and humic substances (HS), on biofilm development under unchlorinated DWDS conditions. Although great efforts have been made to remove NOM in DWTPs, remaining NOM still exists in the filter effluent and subsequently enter DWDSs. This unremoved NOM can support the growth of microbial biofilms in DWDS. Thus, the impact of AOM and HS on the formation, chemical composition, and microbial community structures of biofilms was evaluated. The 16S rRNA gene sequencing analyses revealed that the bacterial communities in biofilms were clustered with the organic matter types in bulk water, where Family Comamonadaceae was the most dominant but showed different temporal dynamics depending on the organic matter characteristics in bulk water. Higher diversity was observed in the biofilms grown in AOM-impacted bulk water (BFAOM) than biofilms grown in HS-impacted (BFHS) and R2A-impacted bulk water (BFR2A) as the biofilms matured. In addition, some taxa (e.g., Rhodobacteraceae, and Sphingomonadaceae) were enriched in BFAOM compared to BFHS and BFR2A. The biofilm image analysis results indicated that compared to BFHS, BFAOM and BFR2A had relatively thinner and heterogeneous physical structures with lower amounts of cell biomass, extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), and higher EPS protein/polysaccharide ratios.
The third objective of this study was to elucidate how different types of organic matter, including AOM and HS, affect biomolecular compositions of biofilms and subsequent DBP formation. In order to control biofilm formation in DWDS, water utilities apply disinfectants such as chlorine or monochloramines. However, these applied disinfectants can lead to the formation of toxic DBPs due to the presence of organic-rich substances within biofilms. Therefore, the impact of organic matter composition on biomulecular composition of biofilms and their correlations with DBP formation were explored. The obtained results indicated that all biofilm samples comprised mostly of protein-like components (~90%), and to a lesser extent, humic-like components (~10%). Strong correlations were generally found between tryptophan-like substances and the studied DBP formation (R2min ≥ 0.76, P < 0.05), indicating that they play a major role in producing biofilm-derived DBPs upon chlorination. Moreover, significant discrepancies between the chemical composition and DBP formation of biofilms and their corresponding feed solutions were observed, likely due to biotransformation and biosorption processes.