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Updated: Dec 23, 2025

Measuring Phosphorus Release in Laboratory Microcosms for Water Quality Assessment
Published on: July 22, 2019
Using Microbial Aggregates to Entrap Aqueous Phosphorus
Ying Xu1, Yonghong Wu2, Sofia Esquivel-Elizondo3
1Zigui Ecological Station for Three Gorges Dam Project, State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 71 East Beijing Road, Nanjing 210008, China; College of Resource and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Abstract:
The increasing use and associated loss of phosphorus to the environment pose risks to aquatic ecosystems. Technology for phosphorus removal based on microbial aggregates is a natural, ecologically widespread, and sustainable reclamation strategy. Two main processes dominate phosphorus removal by microbial aggregates: extra- and intra-cellular entrapment. Extracellular phosphorus entrapment relies on extracellular polymeric substances, while intracellular entrapment uses a wider variety of phosphorus-entrapping mechanisms. In microbial aggregates, microalgae-bacteria interactions, quorum sensing, and acclimation can enhance phosphorus removal. Based on these insights, we propose novel avenues for entrapping phosphorus using ecological and genetic engineering, manipulated interactions, and integrated processes to create phosphorus removal technology mediated by microbial aggregates.
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