Dynamic Changes in Soil Microbial Communities with Glucose Enrichment in Sediment Microbial Fuel Cells

To investigate soil microbial community dynamics in sediment microbial fuel cells (MFCs), this study applied nonhydric (D) and hydric (S) soils to single-chamber and mediator-free MFCs. Glucose was also used to enrich microorganisms in the soils. The voltage outputs of both the D and S sediment MFCs increased over time but differed from each other. The initial open circuit potentials were 345 and 264 mV for the D and S MFCs. The voltage output reached a maximum of 503 and 604 mV for D and S on days 125 and 131, respectively. The maximum power densities of the D and S MFCs were 2.74 and 2.12 mW m^-2, analyzed on day 50. Clustering results revealed that the two groups did not cluster after glucose supplementation and 126 days of MFC function. The change in Geobacter abundance was consistent with the voltage output, indicating that these bacteria may act as the main exoelectrogens on the anode. Spearman correlation analysis demonstrated that, in the D soils, Geobacter was positively correlated with Dialister and negatively correlated with Bradyrhizobium, Kaistobacter, Pedomicrobium, and Phascolarctobacterium; in the S soils, Geobacter was positively correlated with Shewanella and negatively correlated with Blautia. The results suggested that different soil sources in the MFCs and the addition of glucose as a nutrient produced diverse microbial communities with varying voltage output efficiencies.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12088-021-00959-x.