Constructed wetlands for the removal of metals from livestock wastewater – Can the presence of veterinary antibiotics affect removals?

The presence of emergent antibiotics, in livestock wastewater may affect constructed wetlands (CWs) performance in the removal of other pollutants. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of two antibiotics commonly used in livestock industry, enrofloxacin and ceftiofur, on metal removal by CWs. Microcosms (0.4 m×0.3 m×0.3 m), simulating CWs, were constructed with Phragmites australis to treat livestock wastewater spiked or not with 100 µg/L of enrofloxacin or ceftiofur...

Bacterial community dynamic associated with autochthonous bioaugmentation for enhanced Cu phytoremediation of salt-marsh sediments

Autochthonous bioaugmentation for metal phytoremediation is still little explored, particularly its application to estuarine salt marshes, but results obtained so far are promising. Nevertheless, understanding the behaviour of the microbial communities in the process of bioaugmentation and their role in improving metal phytoremediation is very important to fully validate the application of this biological technology. This study aimed to characterize the bacterial community dynamic associated ...

Can veterinary antibiotics affect constructed wetlands performance during treatment of livestock wastewater?

Constructed wetlands (CWs) can be used to reduce various pollutants present in livestock wastewater, such as organic matter, nutrients and metals. Very recently these systems have also been used to remove the so called emergent pollutants. These pollutants can be harmful for both microorganisms and plants, two key players in CWs removal processes. Therefore, the aim of the present work was to assess the influence of emergent pollutants, namely antibiotics, on the removal of pollutants from li...

Biodegradation of mono-, di- and trifluoroacetate by microbial cultures with different origins

This work focused on the biodegradation of three structurally related fluoroacetates (FAs), mono- (MFA), di- (DFA) and trifluoroacetate (TFA), using as microbial inocula samples collected from a site with a long history of industrial contamination and activated sludge obtained from a municipal wastewater treatment plant. Biodegradation experiments were carried out under different modes of substrate supplementation, which included (i) FAs fed as sole carbon sources; (ii) FAs (only for DFA and ...