Bacterial Community Composition and Diversity of a Full-Scale Integrated Fixed-Film Activated Sludge System as Investigated by Pyrosequencing

The integrated fixed-film activated sludge (IFAS) system is a variation of the activated sludge wastewater treatment process, in which hybrid suspended and attached biomass is used to treat wastewater. Although the function and performance of the IFAS system are well studied, little is known about its microbial community structure. In this study, the composition and diversity of the bacterial community of suspended and attached biomass samples were investigated in a full-scale IFAS system using a high-throughput pyrosequencing technology. Distinct bacterial community compositions were examined for each sample and appeared to be important for its features different from conventional activated sludge processes. The abundant bacterial groups were Betaproteobacteria (59.3%), Gammaproteobacteria (8.1%), Bacteroidetes (5.2%), Alphaproteobacteria (3.9%), and Actinobacteria (3.2%) in the suspended sample, whereas Actinobacteria (14.6%), Firmicutes (13.6%), Bacteroidetes (11.6%), Betaproteobacteria (9.9%), Gammaproteobacteria (9.25%), and Alphaproteobacteria (7.4%) were major bacterial groups in the attached sample. Regarding the diversity, totals of 3,034 and 1,451 operational taxonomic units were identified at the 3% cutoff for the suspended and attached samples, respectively. Rank abundance and community analyses demonstrated that most of the diversity was originated from rare species in the samples. Taken together, the information obtained in this study will be a base for further studies relating to the microbial community structure and function of the IFAS system.