TY - JOUR
T1 - Core-satellite populations and seasonality of water meter biofilms in a metropolitan drinking water distribution system
AU - Ling, Fangqiong
AU - Hwang, Chiachi
AU - LeChevallier, Mark W.
AU - Andersen, Gary L.
AU - Liu, Wen Tso
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank the staff at Illinois American Water for providing water meter samples, water quality data and construction history. We thank Ce Gao for help with the python code for pairwise distance retrieval, Masaru Nobu for discussion on data visualization and Drs Rachel Whitaker, James O’Dw-yer and Vern Snoeyink for meaningful discussions. The study is funded by Water Research Foundation and the Academic Excellence Alliance program from King Abdul-lah University of Science and Technology. The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 International Society for Microbial Ecology.
PY - 2016/3/1
Y1 - 2016/3/1
N2 - Drinking water distribution systems (DWDSs) harbor the microorganisms in biofilms and suspended communities, yet the diversity and spatiotemporal distribution have been studied mainly in the suspended communities. This study examined the diversity of biofilms in an urban DWDS, its relationship with suspended communities and its dynamics. The studied DWDS in Urbana, Illinois received conventionally treated and disinfected water sourced from the groundwater. Over a 2-year span, biomass were sampled from household water meters (n=213) and tap water (n=20) to represent biofilm and suspended communities, respectively. A positive correlation between operational taxonomic unit (OTU) abundance and occupancy was observed. Examined under a 'core-satellite' model, the biofilm community comprised 31 core populations that encompassed 76.7% of total 16 S rRNA gene pyrosequences. The biofilm communities shared with the suspended community highly abundant and prevalent OTUs, which related to methano-/methylotrophs (i.e., Methylophilaceae and Methylococcaceae) and aerobic heterotrophs (Sphingomonadaceae and Comamonadaceae), yet differed by specific core populations and lower diversity and evenness. Multivariate tests indicated seasonality as the main contributor to community structure variation. This pattern was resilient to annual change and correlated to the cyclic fluctuations of core populations. The findings of a distinctive biofilm community assemblage and methano-/methyltrophic primary production provide critical insights for developing more targeted water quality monitoring programs and treatment strategies for groundwater-sourced drinking water systems.
AB - Drinking water distribution systems (DWDSs) harbor the microorganisms in biofilms and suspended communities, yet the diversity and spatiotemporal distribution have been studied mainly in the suspended communities. This study examined the diversity of biofilms in an urban DWDS, its relationship with suspended communities and its dynamics. The studied DWDS in Urbana, Illinois received conventionally treated and disinfected water sourced from the groundwater. Over a 2-year span, biomass were sampled from household water meters (n=213) and tap water (n=20) to represent biofilm and suspended communities, respectively. A positive correlation between operational taxonomic unit (OTU) abundance and occupancy was observed. Examined under a 'core-satellite' model, the biofilm community comprised 31 core populations that encompassed 76.7% of total 16 S rRNA gene pyrosequences. The biofilm communities shared with the suspended community highly abundant and prevalent OTUs, which related to methano-/methylotrophs (i.e., Methylophilaceae and Methylococcaceae) and aerobic heterotrophs (Sphingomonadaceae and Comamonadaceae), yet differed by specific core populations and lower diversity and evenness. Multivariate tests indicated seasonality as the main contributor to community structure variation. This pattern was resilient to annual change and correlated to the cyclic fluctuations of core populations. The findings of a distinctive biofilm community assemblage and methano-/methyltrophic primary production provide critical insights for developing more targeted water quality monitoring programs and treatment strategies for groundwater-sourced drinking water systems.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84938825000&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/ismej.2015.136
DO - 10.1038/ismej.2015.136
M3 - Article
C2 - 26251872
AN - SCOPUS:84938825000
SN - 1751-7362
VL - 10
SP - 582
EP - 595
JO - ISME Journal
JF - ISME Journal
IS - 3
ER -