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Siemering GS, Arriaga FJ, Cagle GA, Van Beek JM, Freedman ZB. Impacts of vegetable processing and cheese making effluent on soil microbial functional diversity, community structure, and denitrification potential of land treatment systems. Water Environ Res 2024; 96:e11036. [PMID: 38740567 DOI: 10.1002/wer.11036] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2024] [Revised: 04/16/2024] [Accepted: 04/20/2024] [Indexed: 05/16/2024]
Abstract
The cheese making and vegetable processing industries generate immense volumes of high-nitrogen wastewater that is often treated at rural facilities using land applications. Laboratory incubation results showed denitrification decreased with temperature in industry facility soils but remained high in soils from agricultural sites (75% at 2.1°C). 16S rRNA, phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA), and soil respiration analyses were conducted to investigate potential soil microbiome impacts. Biotic and abiotic system factor correlations showed no clear patterns explaining the divergent denitrification rates. In all three soil types at the phylum level, Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, and Acidobacteria dominated, whereas at the class level, Nitrososphaeria and Alphaproteobacteria dominated, similar to denitrifying systems such as wetlands, wastewater resource recovery facilities, and wastewater-irrigated agricultural systems. Results show that potential denitrification drivers vary but lay the foundation to develop a better understanding of the key factors regulating denitrification in land application systems and protect local groundwater supplies. PRACTITIONER POINTS: Incubation study denitrification rates decreased as temperatures decreased, potentially leading to groundwater contamination issues during colder months. The three most dominant phyla for all systems are Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, and Acidobacteria. The dominant class for all systems is Nitrosphaeria (phyla Crenarchaeota). No correlation patterns between denitrification rates and system biotic and abiotic factors were observed that explained system efficiency differences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Geoffrey S Siemering
- Department of Soil Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA
| | - Francisco J Arriaga
- Department of Soil Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA
| | - Grace A Cagle
- Department of Soil Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA
| | - Joelie M Van Beek
- Department of Soil Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA
| | - Zachary B Freedman
- Department of Soil Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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Bhattacharjee AS, Phan D, Zheng C, Ashworth D, Schmidt M, Men Y, Ferreira JFS, Muir G, Hasan NA, Ibekwe AM. Dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes through soil-plant-earthworm continuum in the food production environment. Environ Int 2024; 183:108374. [PMID: 38101104 DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2023.108374] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2023] [Revised: 12/04/2023] [Accepted: 12/05/2023] [Indexed: 12/17/2023]
Abstract
Treated municipal wastewater (TMW) can provide a reliable source of irrigation water for crops, which is especially important in arid areas where water resources are limited or prone to drought. Nonetheless, TMW may contain residual antibiotics, potentially exposing the crops to these substances. The goal of this study was to investigate the dissemination of antibiotics resistance genes (ARGs) in the soil-plant-earthworm continuum after irrigation of spinach and radish plants with TMW containing trimethoprim, sulfamethoxazole, and sulfapyridine in a greenhouse experiment, followed by feeding of earthworms with harvested plant materials. Our results showed that antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) were enriched in the soil-plant-earthworm microbiomes irrigated with TMW and TMW spiked with higher concentrations of antibiotics. The number of ARGs and antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) enrichment varied with plant type, with spinach harboring a significantly higher amount of ARGs and ARB compared to radish. Our data showed that bulk and rhizosphere soils of spinach and radish plants irrigated with MilliQ water, TMW, TMW10, or TMW100 had significant differences in bacterial community (p < 0.001), ARG (p < 0.001), and virulence factor gene (VFG) (p < 0.001) diversities. The abundance of ARGs significantly decreased from bulk soil to rhizosphere to phyllosphere and endosphere. Using metagenome assembled genomes (MAGs), we recovered many bacterial MAGs and a near complete genome (>90 %) of bacterial MAG of genus Leclercia adecarboxylata B from the fecal microbiome of earthworm that was fed harvested radish tubers and spinach leaves grown on TMW10 irrigated waters, and this bacterium has been shown to be an emerging pathogen causing infection in immunocompromised patients that may lead to health complications and death. Therefore, crops irrigated with TMW containing residual antibiotics and ARGs may lead to increased incidences of enrichment of ARB in the soil-plant-earthworm continuum.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ananda S Bhattacharjee
- US Salinity Laboratory, USDA-ARS, 450 W. Big Springs Rd., Riverside, CA 92507, USA; Department of Environmental Sciences, University of California, Riverside, CA 92507, USA
| | - Duc Phan
- US Salinity Laboratory, USDA-ARS, 450 W. Big Springs Rd., Riverside, CA 92507, USA; Department of Environmental Sciences, University of California, Riverside, CA 92507, USA
| | - Chujing Zheng
- Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Riverside, CA 92507, USA
| | - Daniel Ashworth
- US Salinity Laboratory, USDA-ARS, 450 W. Big Springs Rd., Riverside, CA 92507, USA
| | - Michael Schmidt
- US Salinity Laboratory, USDA-ARS, 450 W. Big Springs Rd., Riverside, CA 92507, USA
| | - Yujie Men
- Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Riverside, CA 92507, USA
| | - Jorge F S Ferreira
- US Salinity Laboratory, USDA-ARS, 450 W. Big Springs Rd., Riverside, CA 92507, USA
| | | | - Nur A Hasan
- EzBiome, Gaithersburg, MD, USA; Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
| | - Abasiofiok M Ibekwe
- US Salinity Laboratory, USDA-ARS, 450 W. Big Springs Rd., Riverside, CA 92507, USA.
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Boyer TH, Gernjak W. Research stories along the urban water cycle. Water Res X 2024; 22:100218. [PMID: 38516567 PMCID: PMC10955406 DOI: 10.1016/j.wroa.2024.100218] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/29/2024] [Revised: 03/05/2024] [Accepted: 03/08/2024] [Indexed: 03/23/2024]
Affiliation(s)
- Treavor H. Boyer
- School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment (SSEBE), Arizona State University, PO Box 873005, Tempe, AZ 85287-3005, USA
| | - Wolfgang Gernjak
- Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA), 17003 Girona, Spain
- Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), 08010 Barcelona, Spain
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