Membrane bioreactors (MBR) have become prevalent in wastewater treatment because of their high effluent quality and low sludge generation. Sludge retention time (SRT) is an important parameter in the operation of MBR, and it has a direct effect on the microbial community. In this study, microarrays were used to analyze the microbial communities of three different MBRs at short SRTs. The results showed that MBR at SRT 5 days (CS5) has the highest operational taxonomic units (OTUs) richness, but the lowest diversity and uniformity compared to SRT 3 days at continuous CS3 and the sequencing batch (SS3). Proteobacteria were the dominant phylum of three reactors. Bacteroidetes were the second dominant phylum in MBRs at the continuous model, instead of Actinobacteria at the sequencing model. At the class level, the dominant group of Proteobacteria exhibited a remarkable difference between the three MBRs. γ-Proteobacteria was the dominant group in CS5 and CS3, while α-Proteobacteria was the main group in SS3. The samples from the three MBRs had similar compositions of α-, β- and δ-Proteobacteria. However, γ-Proteobacteria showed different community compositions at the order level between the three MBRs. Enterobacteriales were the dominant group in CS5 and CS3, while Pseudomonadales were the dominant group in SS3. The bacterial community concentration of SRT 5 days was generally higher than that of the other two MBRs. The community composition of CS5 was significantly different from that of CS3 and SS3, and the phylogenetic relationships of the three MBRs were relatively different.
Keywords: high-density microarray; membrane bioreactor; membrane sequencing batch reactor; microbial community; sludge retention time.