Large scale micropollutants and lipids screening in the sludge layers and the ecosystem of a vertical flow constructed wetland

Loïc Maurer; Claire Villette; Julie Zumsteg; Adrien Wanko; Dimitri Heintz

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.141196

Large scale micropollutants and lipids screening in the sludge layers and the ecosystem of a vertical flow constructed wetland

Sci Total Environ. 2020 Dec 1:746:141196. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.141196. Epub 2020 Jul 24.

Authors

Loïc Maurer¹, Claire Villette¹, Julie Zumsteg², Adrien Wanko³, Dimitri Heintz⁴

Affiliations

¹ Plant Imaging and Mass Spectrometry (PIMS), Institut de biologie moléculaire des plantes, CNRS, Université de Strasbourg, 12 rue du Général Zimmer, 67084 Strasbourg, France; Département mécanique, ICube Laboratoire des sciences de l'ingénieur, de l'informatique et de l'imagerie, UNISTRA/CNRS/ENGEES/INSA, 2 rue Boussingault, 67000 Strasbourg, France.
² Plant Imaging and Mass Spectrometry (PIMS), Institut de biologie moléculaire des plantes, CNRS, Université de Strasbourg, 12 rue du Général Zimmer, 67084 Strasbourg, France.
³ Département mécanique, ICube Laboratoire des sciences de l'ingénieur, de l'informatique et de l'imagerie, UNISTRA/CNRS/ENGEES/INSA, 2 rue Boussingault, 67000 Strasbourg, France.
⁴ Plant Imaging and Mass Spectrometry (PIMS), Institut de biologie moléculaire des plantes, CNRS, Université de Strasbourg, 12 rue du Général Zimmer, 67084 Strasbourg, France. Electronic address: dimitri.heintz@ibmp-cnrs.unistra.fr.

PMID: 32771759
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.141196

Abstract

Wastewater is one of the major sources of micropollutant release into the environment. In order to reduce the impact of wastewater, wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) have been set up, in the instance of vertical flow constructed wetlands (VFCWs). Besides, micropollutants could represent a vast diversity of compounds and compound's choice could bias studies focused on their fate. To overcome this bias, non-targeted screening approaches can be performed. Therefore, the diffusion of micropollutants from raw wastewater in the VFCW compartments (wastewater, plants and sludge) as well as their fate have been investigated using this non-target approach with liquid chromatography (LC) coupled to high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) and gas chromatography (GC) coupled to mass spectrometry. To help the operators in their sludge management, this study will be focused on the following question: Is there a specific distribution of micropollutants according to sludge layers? To eliminate the background contamination found both inside the CW and in the surrounding environment, a control coring was performed in bank. A specific distribution could be observed in the top (191 compounds) and bottom layers (38 compounds). However, a distribution over the whole depth for xenobiotics was observed. Micropollutants classes and the main microbial productivity were preferably found in the top layer. The micropollutants fate could however not be restricted to the sludge compartment. Therefore, the specific micropollutants distribution was analyzed in the outputs of the system in their interactions with wastewater (effluent, sludge, and reed rhizomes) to understand their fate. In our study, the results highlighted a consistent part of compounds found in at least two or three of these compartments, with a similar trend in each compartment. These results underline the interactions between the compartments and the global issues of micropollutants distribution as well as its wide spreading in the whole CW ecosystem.

Keywords: Constructed wetland; Lipids; Micropollutants; Non – targeted high-resolution mass spectrometry; Sludge.