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Updated: Nov 3, 2025

A Novel Bioreactor for High Density Cultivation of Diverse Microbial Communities
Published on: December 25, 2015
High Resistance of a Sludge Enriched with Nitrogen-Fixing Bacteria to Ammonium Salts and Its Potential as a
Claudia Rodriguez-Gonzalez1, Carolina Ospina-Betancourth2, Janeth Sanabria1
1School of Environmental & Natural Resources Engineering, Engineering Faculty, Universidad del Valle, Cali 760032, Colombia.
Abstract:
The increasing use of chemical fertilizers causes the loss of natural biological nitrogen fixation in soils, water eutrophication and emits more than 300 Mton CO2 per year. It also limits the success of external bacterial inoculation in the soil. Nitrogen fixing bacteria can be inhibited by the presence of ammonia as its presence can inhibit biological nitrogen fixation. Two aerobic sludges from wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) were exposed to high ammonium salts concentrations (>450 mg L-1 and >2 dS m-1). Microbial analysis after treatment through 16S pyrosequencing showed the presence of Fluviicola sp. (17.70%), a genus of the Clostridiaceae family (11.17%), and Azospirillum sp. (10.42%), which were present at the beginning with lower abundance. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) analysis based on nifH genes did not show changes in the nitrogen-fixing population. Nitrogen-Fixing Bacteria (NFB) were identified and associated with other microorganisms involved in the nitrogen cycle, presumably for survival at extreme conditions. The potential use of aerobic sludges enriched with NFB is proposed as an alternative to chemical fertilizer as this bacteria could supplement nitrogen to the plant showing competitive results with chemical fertilization.
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