Effects of cropping patterns on the distribution, carbon contents, and nitrogen contents of aeolian sand soil aggregates in Northwest China.

The long-term physicochemical responses of aeolian sandy soil aggregates to different crop rotation patterns are poorly understood. Here, we collected soil samples from the 0 to 20 cm tillage layer of continuous maize crop and alfalfa-maize rotation plots situated on the edge of the Zhangye Oasis, Northwest China. These samples were analyzed to quantify the influence of both cropping patterns on the structure, carbon content, and nitrogen content of aeolian sandy soils. When compared with long-term continuous maize cropping, planting alfalfa-maize rotation system significantly increased the mass fraction of macro-aggregates with sizes of > 2 mm and 0.25-2 mm from 8.7 to 12.1% and 19.1 to 21.2%, respectively, but decreased the mass fraction of micro-aggregates (0.053-0.25 mm) from 8.1 to 6.2%. Further, there was no significant difference in the content of silt and clay particles between each system. The alfalfa-maize rotation increased the stability of aggregates from 32 to 37%, representing an increase of 15.6%. Soil organic carbon, inorganic carbon, and total nitrogen were mainly enriched in macro-aggregates with sizes of > 2 mm, and silt and clay fractions for both cropping patterns. Implementation of a rotation pattern increased organic carbon contents by 27.2%, 25.6%, 26.7%, and 27.6%, inorganic carbon contents by 14.4%, 4.5%, 53.3%, and 21.0%, and total nitrogen contents by 29.7%, 7.0%, 4.2%, and 50.0% in aggregate particle sizes of > 2 mm, 0.25-2 mm, 0.053-0.25 mm, and < 0.053 mm, respectively, when compared to continuous maize cropping. The alfalfa-maize crop rotation can therefore effectively improve soil aggregate composition and aggregate stability, alongside organic carbon content, inorganic carbon content, total nitrogen content, and their storage capacity. This system thus represents a soil cultivation technique that can increase the soil carbon sequestration capacity in the oasis zone of Northwest China.

Effect of Long-Term Fertilization on Aggregate Size Distribution and Nutrient Accumulation in Aeolian Sandy Soil.

Soil aggregates are the material basis of soil structure and important carriers of nutrients. Long-term application of organic and inorganic fertilizers can affect the composition of soil aggregates to varying degrees, which in turn affects the distribution and storage of soil nutrients. We report the results of a 15-year long-term field-based test of aeolian sandy soil and used the wet sieve method to analyze the stability of water-stable aggregates, as well as the distribution characteristics of nutrients in different particle size aggregates. Our results show that long-term application of organic fertilizer (M3) and combined organic−inorganic treatments (NPK1-M1, NPK1-M2, and NPK1-M3) help to increase the amount of organic carbon, inorganic carbon, and cation exchange in the macro-aggregates, and the improvement rates are 92−103%, 8−28%, and 74−85%, respectively. The organic content of the fertilizers also promotes the formation of macro-aggregates, and the stability of aggregates increase from 0.24 to 0.45. In contrast, the application of inorganic fertilizers (NPK1, NPK2, and NPK3) has no marked effect on the formation and stability of macro-aggregates; the application of inorganic fertilizers can merely maintain the organic carbon content of the soil. Correlation analysis shows that the application of organic fertilizers and chemical (inorganic) fertilizers containing phosphorus and potassium can markedly increase the content and reserves of available phosphorus and potassium across all aggregate sizes, and there is a significant positive correlation between these parameters and the amount of applied fertilizer (p < 0.05). Aggregates of various sizes in aeolian sandy soils in arid areas have the potential for greater nutrient storage. Therefore, organic fertilizers can be used in the agricultural production process to improve soil structure and fertility.

Succession of soil bacterial community along a 46-year choronsequence artificial revegetation in an arid oasis-desert ecotone.

How the bacterial community structure and potential metabolic functions will change after revegetation in arid desert ecosystems is still unknown. We used high-throughput pyrosequencing to explore changes in soil bacterial diversity, structure and metabolic pathways, and the key driving factors along a chronosequence of 46-year Haloxylon ammodendron revegetation in an oasis-desert ecotone in the northwestern China. Our results indicated that establishment of H. ammodendron on shifting sand dunes significantly changed the structure of bacterial communities and increased their diversity and richness. The main dominant phyla were Actinobacteria (32.1-41.3%) and Proteobacteria (19.2-27.0%); in that, α-Proteobacteria (16.4-20.7%) were the most abundant Proteobacteria. Kocuria coexisted at different succession stage after year 0, and their relative abundance ranged from 3.8-9.0%. Principal coordinates analysis (PCoA) showed that bacterial community from the same revegetation site grouped together and generally separated from each other, indicating that significant shifts in bacterial community structure occurred after revegetation. LEfSe analysis identified unique biomarkers in the soil samples from seven sites. Moreover, PICRUSt analysis indicated similar overall patterns of metabolic pathways in different succession stage. Redundancy analysis (RDA) showed that total carbon, pH and total phosphorus were major abiotic factors driving the structure of bacterial communities, which explained 57.5% of the variation in bacterial communities. Our findings advance the current understanding of plant-soil interactions in the processes of ecological restoration and desertification reversal.

Simultaneous carbon and nitrogen removal by anaerobic ammonium oxidation and denitrification under different operating strategies.

Real domestic wastewater was treated initially in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR), with partial nitrification achieved before the effluent was used as the influent for an anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) reactor (ASBR) system. The effects of three factors, hydraulic retention time (HRT), substrate (NO2-/NH4+) ratio, and the ratio of COD to NH4+ (C/N), on the removal of carbon and nitrogen by an anammox and denitrification process were investigated in the ASBR reactor at 24°C. The response surface methodology was used to explore the interactions of the three factors. The results indicated that the nitrogen and carbon removal efficiency was optimum when HRT, substrate ratio, and C/N ratio were 33 h, 1.4-1.6, and 3-5, respectively. The optimal removal rates of NH4+, NO2-, and COD were 96.30%, 97.79%, and 72.91%, respectively. The ΔNO2-/ΔNH4+ and ΔNO3-/ΔNH4+ ratios of the first two conditions were less than the theoretical anammox values of 1.32 and 0.26 due to heterotrophic denitrification. The optimum nitrogen and carbon removal efficiencies of the third condition could be realized by the synergistic effect of denitrification and the anammox process. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) results showed that when the HRT was 33.48 h, the substrate ratio was 1.46, and the C/N ratio was 4.28, the total nitrogen removal rate (TNR) was optimum (90.12 ± 0.1%), verified by parallel experiments.

Achieving stable two-stage mainstream partial-nitrification/anammox (PN/A) operation via intermittent aeration.

The mainstream anammox process has attracted extensive attention recently. Compared to single-stage partial-nitrification/anammox (PN/A) system, two-stage PN/A process was more advantageous for achieving mainstream anammox. However, complex control strategy in partial-nitrification reactor (N-SBR) might not be feasible in practical application. The aim of this study was to provide an easy operation strategy to achieve two-stage PN/A process. Firstly, intermittent aeration was investigated to achieve 100% conversion of ammonium to nitrite in N-SBR. The effluent nitrite concentrations increased from 19.96 to 38.62 mg/L when intermittent aeration ratio (IAC) varied from 30 min/30 min-30 min/15 min. During 125 d's operation of N-SBR, stable partial nitrification performance was obtained through intermittent aeration, without coupling with low dissolve oxygen or short sludge retention time. Then, raw municipal wastewater was directly mixed with N-SBR effluent to provide suitable feed to anaerobic sequencing batch reactor (A-SBR).When the mixture ratio between the raw wastewater and the N-SBR effluent was 2.5, the effluent ammonium and total inorganic nitrogen (TIN) was only 0.97 and 2.52 mg N/L, respectively. Additionally, carbon-based pollutants was also removed in the proposed system without any pretreatment, which made the process easier to operate in practice.

[Start-up Performance of Low-substrate Anaerobic Ammonium Oxidation Under Different COD Concentrations].

An anaerobic sequencing batch reactor(ASBR)was used to treat low-substrate simulated wastewater with NH4+-N and NO2--N concentrations of (25.00±0.40) mg·L-1 and (33.00±0.60) mg·L-1, respectively. The COD concentrations were controlled at 5.00, 15.00, 30.00, and 50.00 mg·L-1 by adding sodium acetate, and its effects on start-up of anaerobic ammonia oxidation (ANAMMOX) were investigated under the temperature of 30℃. The results showed that ① The start-up of ANAMMOX could be achieved successfully after 74, 94, 106, and 129 days. The nitrogen removal efficiency was optimum when the COD concentration was between 15.00 and 30.00 mg·L-1. In the steady phase, the average effluent concentrations of NH4+-N were 1.98 and 1.89 mg·L-1, the average effluent concentrations of NO2--N were below 0.62 mg·L-1, and the average effluent concentrations of TN were 2.37 and 2.28 mg·L-1. ② The average contribution of heterotrophic denitrification to nitrogen removal decreased to 4.78%, 9.59%, 10.21%, and 36.50%, respectively, during start-up process. The average contribution of ANAMMOX to nitrogen removal gradually increased to 95.22%, 90.41%, 89.79%, and 63.50%, respectively. ③ The activities of ANAMMOX exceeded denitrification activities at 44, 76, 86, and 114 days, respectively, which finally reached 0.700, 0.690, 0.670, and 0.510 mg·(g·h)-1, and the denitrification activities were 0.110, 0.130, 0.240 and 0.410 mg·(g·h)-1, respectively. Thus, the research results have provided references for the application of ANAMMOX to engineering.

[Characteristics of Denitrifying Phosphorus Removal by A2/O-BAF at Low Temperatures].

Low C/N domestic sewage was treated by an A2/O-biological aerated filter (BAF) system at low temperatures (11-14℃). The characteristics of pollutant removal, the ratio of denitrifying phosphorus to nitrogen (ΔPO43-/ΔNO3-N) and effects of aeration flow and effective packing height on nitrification in BAF were studied. The results showed that when the average influent concentrations of COD, NH4+-N, TN and PO43- were 193.1, 58.6, 60.3 and 5.1 mg·L-1 respectively, their effluent concentrations were 46.3, 2.5, 13.4 and 0.3 mg·L-1 respectively, which met the first level A criteria specified in the discharge standard of pollutants for municipal wastewater treatment plant (GB 18918-2002). The linear fitting of ΔPO43-/ΔNO3--N was between 0.47 and 1.75. The normal distribution of mathematical statistics was applied-and the average standard deviation for ΔPO43-/ΔNO3--N were 1.20 and 0.29 respectively. When the aeration flows were 60 L·h-1 and 100 L·h-1, the effluent concentration of NH4+-N was less than 5.0 mg·L-1, corresponding to the effective packing heights in the BAF of 1.8 m and 1.0 m respectively. However, when the aeration flow was increased to 120 L·h-1, the air-water flow led to biofilm detachment, which caused the effluent concentration of NH4+-N to increase beyond 5.0 mg·L-1.

[Effect of HRT on Nitrogen Removal Using ANAMMOX and Heterotrophic Denitrification].

Real domestic sewage was first treated in SBR and partial nitrification was achieved. When average concentrations of NH4+-N, NO2--N, and COD were 37.27, 39.97, and 120 mg·L-1, respectively, the effluent was delivered as influent of an anaerobic ammonia oxidation reactor (ASBR). The effect of different HRTs (36 h, 33 h, 30 h, 27 h) on nitrogen removal of ANAMMOX and heterotrophic denitrification were investigated under conditions of temperature of 24℃ and pH of 7.2±0.2. Results showed that 1 nitrogen removal efficiency was optimum with HRT of 33 h. The average total nitrogen load rate(TNLR)and total nitrogen removal rate(TNRR)were 0.056 kg·(m3·d)-1and 0.050 kg·(m3·d)-1, respectively. The average effluent concentrations of NH4+-N, NO2--N, and COD were 1.36, 0.47, and 49.79 mg·L-1, and removal rates were 96.30%, 98.83%, and 56.17%, respectively. △NO2--N/△NH4+-N and △NO3--N/△NH4+-N were 1.17 and 0.15, 0.15 and 0.11 less than theoretical ANAMMOX values (1.32, 0.26) due to heterotrophic denitrification. 2 The contribution of ANAMMOX to nitrogen removal decreased; however, the contribution of heterotrophic denitrification to nitrogen removal gradually increased with decreasing HRT. This provides a point of reference for ANAMMOX in engineering applications.

[Performance of the Removal of Nitrogen During Anaerobic Ammonia Oxidation Using Different Operational Strategies].

The effects of low substrate ratio, cooling methods, and pH on nitrogen removal performance were studied in a laboratory-scale anaerobic ammonium oxidation reactor (ASBR) while treating simulated domestic waste water. The results illustrated that the average removal efficiencies of NH4+-N and NO2--N increased from 54.4% and 65.3% to 95.8% and 92.5%, respectively, at a temperature of 30℃ and an influent concentration of NO2--N of (30±0.2)mg·L-1. The substrate ratio (NO2--N/NH4+-N) increased from 0.9 to 1.4.However, the removal efficiency of NH4+-N was affected negligibly, and the average removal efficiency of NO2--N decreased to 54.6% when the substrate ratio was increased to 1.6, suggesting that the nitrogen removal performance of anaerobic ammonium oxidation was best when the substrate ratio was close to the theoretical value of 1.32.The average removal efficiencies of NH4+-N and NO2--N decreased from 97.5% and 98.5% to 35.2% and 40.1%, respectively, when the temperature of the reactor dropped from 30℃ to 15℃ at one time. The average removal efficiencies of NH4+-N and NO2--N dropped from 97.7% and 98.6% to 52.7% and 62.4%, respectively, when the ladder cooling method(30℃→25℃→20℃→15℃) was used. The average removal efficiencies of NH4+-N and NO2--N increased initially and then decreased when the pH was increased gradually from 7.7 to 8.5.The highest nitrogen removal efficiency was achieved when the pH was controlled at 8.3 with a substrate ratio of NO2--N/NH4+-N equal to 1.4.

[Effect of Substrate Ratio on Removal of Nitrogen and Carbon Using Anaerobic Ammonium Oxidation and Denitrification].

Real domestic sewage was treated in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR). When the partial nitrification of SBR was achieved, the effluent was fed with quantitative NaNO2, which served as the influent of the anaerobic ammonium oxidation (ANAMMOX) process of the anaerobic SBR (ASBR). The effect of different substrate ratios on the removal of nitrogen and carbon using anaerobic ammonium oxidation and denitrification was investigated under conditions with a temperature of 24℃ and pH of 7.2±0.2. The results showed that ① the nitrogen removal efficiency was optimum when the influent NO2--N/NH4+-N was 1.4-1.6. The average effluent concentrations of NH4+-N, NO2--N, and chemical oxygen demand (COD) were 2.14, 1.07, and 30.50 mg·L-1, and their removal rates were 93.62%, 97.79%, and 74.75%, respectively. The △NO2--N/△NH4+-N and △NO3--N/△NH4+-N ratios were 1.60 and 0.17, respectively. Total nitrogen was removed by the joint action of denitrifying and ANAMMOX bacteria. ② When the influent ratio of NO2--N/NH4+-N increased, the contribution of ANAMMOX to nitrogen removal decreased, but the contribution of heterotrophic denitrification to nitrogen removal increased gradually. ③ The NH4+-N and NO2--N degradation processes corresponded with zero-order reactions and fitted the linear relationship in the typical cycle. Their specific degradation rates were 0.404 and 0.599 mg·(g·h)-1, respectively. Their ratio was 1.48, and the specific degradation rate of COD gradually increased.