Dynamics of bacterial metabolic profile and community structure during the mineralization of organic carbon in intensive swine farm wastewater.

Land application of intensive swine farm wastewater has raised serious environmental concerns due to the accumulation and microbially mediated transformation of large amounts of swine wastewater organic C (SWOC). Therefore, the study of SWOC mineralization and dynamics of wastewater microorganisms is essential to understand the environmental impacts of swine wastewater application. We measured the C mineralization of incubated swine wastewaters with high (wastewater H) and low (wastewater L) organic C concentrations. The dynamics of bacteria metabolic profile and community structure were also investigated. The results showed that SWOC mineralization was properly fitted by the two-simultaneous reactions model. The initial potential rate of labile C mineralization of wastewater H was 46% higher than that of wastewater L, whereas the initial potential rates of recalcitrant C mineralization of wastewaters H and L were both around 23 mg L-1 d-1. The bacterial functional and structural diversities significantly decreased for both the wastewaters during SWOC mineralization, and were all negatively correlated to specific UV absorbance (SUVA254; P < 0.01). The bacteria in the raw wastewaters exhibited functional similarity, and both metabolic profile and community structure changed with the mineralization of SWOC, mainly under the influence of SUVA254 (P < 0.001). These results suggested that SWOC mineralization was characterized by rapid mineralization of labile C and subsequent slow decomposition of recalcitrant C pool, and the quality of SWOC varied between the wastewaters with different amounts of organic C. The decreased bio-availability of dissolved organic matter affected the dynamics of wastewater bacteria during SWOC mineralization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]