Variation of eubacterial and denitrifying bacterial biofilm communities among constructed wetlands

• Bacteria play important roles in the transformation of nutrients in wetlands, but few studies have examined parameters affecting variation in bacterial community composition between wetlands. We compared the composition of eubacterial and denitrifying bacterial biofilm communities in 32 agricultural constructed wetlands in southern Sweden, and the extent to which wetland environmental parameters could explain the observed variation. Structure and richness of the eubacterial 16S rRNA gene and three denitrifying bacterial enzyme genes (nirK, nirS and nosZ), analysed by molecular fingerprinting methods, varied among the constructed wetlands, which could be partly explained by different environmental parameters. Results from the enzyme gene analyses were also compared to determine whether the practice of using a single denitrifying bacterial gene could characterize the overall community composition of denitrifying bacteria. We found that nirK was more diverse than both nirS and the nosZ, and the band structure and richness of the three genes were not related to the sam environmental parameters. This suggests that using a single enzyme gene may not suffice to characterize the community composition of denitrifying bacteria in constructed agricultural wetlands.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Mikrobiologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Microbiology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

16S rDNA

nirK

nirS

nosZ

bacterial community composition

environmental parameters

PCR-DGGE

denitrification

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

ovr (subject category)