Purification efficiency of eight aquatic plant species in an artificial floating island system in relation to extracellular enzyme activity and microbial community

The floating island system exploits the combination of aquatic plants, microorganisms, and extracellular enzymes to purify wastewater. We investigated the purification efficiency of eight aquatic plant species cultured in wastewater. The relationships of plant purification capacity with extracellular enzyme activity and microbial community were analyzed to explore the crucial factors that affect the plant purification capacity and the mechanism of pollutants removal in different plant systems. Three plant species, namely Oenanthe javanica, Thalia dealbata, and lris pseudacorus, were most effective for purification of ammonium-nitrogen (NH4⁺-N), total phosphate (TP), and chemical oxygen demand (COD) with maximum efficiencies of 76.09, 85.87, and 89.10%, respectively. Urease, alkaline phosphatase (AP), and β-glucosidase activities were significantly and positively correlated with root system development (P < 0.05). Activities of urease and AP were positively correlated with NH4⁺-N and TP removal, respectively. The magnitude of urease and AP activity was generally consistent with the plant’s capacity to remove NH4⁺-N and TP. β-Glucosidase activity and COD removal were not significantly correlated. The dominant microbial phylum in each species treatment was Proteobacteria. Alphaproteobacteria and Bacteroidia showed > 1% relative abundance and greater involvement in degradation of pollutants in the experimental system.

Influence of water availability and temperature on estimates of microbial extracellular enzyme activity

Soils are highly heterogeneous and support highly diverse microbial communities. Microbial extracellular enzymes breakdown complex polymers into small assimilable molecules representing the limiting step of soil organic matter mineralization. This process occurs on to soil particles although currently it is typically estimated in laboratory aqueous solutions. Herein, estimates of microbial extracellular enzyme activity were obtained over a broad range of temperatures and water availabilities frequently observed at soil upper layers. A Pseudomonas strain presented optimum extracellular enzyme activities at high water activity whereas a desiccation resistant bacterium (Deinococcus) and a soil thermophilic isolate (Parageobacillus) showed optimum extracellular enzyme activity under dried (i.e., water activities ranging 0.5–0.8) rather that wet conditions. Different unamended soils presented a distinctive response of extracellular enzyme activity as a function of temperature and water availability. This study presents a procedure to obtain realistic estimates of microbial extracellular enzyme activity under natural soil conditions of extreme water availability and temperature. Improving estimates of microbial extracellular enzyme activity contribute to better understand the role of microorganisms in soils.