Evaluation of the treatment performance and microbial communities of a combined constructed wetland used to treat industrial park wastewater

Constructed wetlands are ecosystems that use plants and microorganisms to remediate pollution in soil and water. In this study, two parallel pilot-scale vertical flow wetland and horizontal flow wetland (VF-HF) systems were implemented to investigate the treatment performance and microorganism community structure in the secondary effluent of an industrial park wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) with a loading rate of 100 mm/day near the Yangtze River in Suzhou City, East China. Removal efficiencies of 82.3, 69.8, 77.8, and 32.3 were achieved by the VF-HF systems for ammonium nitrogen (NH4 (+)-N), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), and chemical oxygen demand (COD), respectively. The VF system specialized in COD and NH4 (+)-N removal (73.6 and 79.2 %), whereas the HF system mainly contributed to TN removal (63.5 %). The effluents in all seasons are capable of achieving the surface water environmental quality standard (GB3838-2002) grade IV. In the VF system, the 16S gene and nirK gene were significantly correlated with depth, with the 16S gene showing significant correlations with the dissolved oxygen (DO) level (r = 0.954, p < 0.05), which was determined by real-time PCR and high-throughput sequencing. Many types of bacteria capable of biodegradation, including nitrifiers, denitrifiers, and polyaromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) degraders (improvement of the BOD5/COD ratio), were observed, and they contributed to approximately 90 % of the nitrogen removal in the VF-HF system.