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Published on: October 15, 2015
Effect of copper in the protistan community of activated sludge
Ana Nicolau1, Maria João Martins, Manuel Mota
1Centro de Engenharia Biológica, Universidade do Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal.
Abstract:
Protists have proved to be an interesting tool for assessing the occurrence of pollution in wastewater treatment systems along with its role in the control of pollution itself through grazing of dispersed bacteria and maintenance of a healthy trophic web in those artificial ecosystems. Two sets of assays were carried on in a bench scale pilot plant in order to study the response of the activated sludge community of protists to the exposure of copper: the first set was carried on with synthetic sewage and the second one with real sewage. The results emphasize the ability of activated sludge biological communities to survive and to react to toxicants and highlight the role of protistan communities as indicators of toxicants entrance in treatment systems.
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