Analysis of the functional diversity of the microbial communities in a paper-mill water system

Abstract

Most microbiological studies of wastewater treatment systems rely on methods that are dependent on culturing. However, due to the limitation of conventional microbiological methods, alternative assays, such as the analysis of the functional diversity of the microbial communities using Biolog substrate utilisation profiles, have been proposed. The Biolog method was thus evaluated in a paper-mill water system. The influence of the production of various paper grades, biocide combinations and monthly maintenance shut-downs on the functional diversity of the microbial communities were determined using the Biolog technique. The communities in the planktonic as well as the sessile phases were analysed approximately every second week for a period of one year. The average well colour development (AWCD) technique was used to transform the data obtained from the Biolog plates prior to multivariate statistical analysis. Our results indicated that different microbial communities developed during the production of the different paper grades.

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