Bioremediation and pathogen load reduction potential of bacterial and mycorrhizal communities in natural and constructed wetland systems

维持加拿大社会需要可靠地获得清洁水；然而，人类活动一直是污染地面和地表水供应的罪魁祸首。人口增长也给有限的水供应带来了更大的压力。因此，保护水源不受污染是必要的。这可以通过传统的污水处理厂(WWTP)处理、通过现有湿地的自然去除或通过污水处理厂和排放到人工湿地的组合来实现。众所周知，微生物和植物群落对人工湿地和自然湿地中污染物的去除负有责任，然而，由于缺乏对这些湿地物种之间的作用和相互作用的了解，优化过程一直受到限制。我们的研究计划的目标是了解植物、真菌和细菌之间发生的三向相互作用如何影响人工湿地和自然湿地中污染物和病原体的去除，以及如何改善相互作用以提高污染物的去除。通过实地和实验室研究，我们将描述湿地生物群之间的关系，衡量选定的植物/真菌和细菌群落组的污染物去除效率，衡量这些组的稳定性，并确定涉及的具体过程。我们的研究将解决以下问题：立地条件和优势植物物种如何影响微生物群落结构？不同的植物群落、真菌群落和细菌群落在污染物去除效率上是否存在差异？这些社区有多稳定？一个特定社区的效率基础是什么机制？解决这些问题将导致在持续使用这些系统以保护清洁水的过程中制定更好的湿地管理战略。

Sustaining Canadian society requires reliable access to clean water; however, human activities have been responsible for contaminating ground and surface water supplies. Human population growth is also placing more pressure on limited water supplies. Therefore, contaminant protection from source water supplies is necessary. This can occur through conventional wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) processing, natural removal through existing wetlands or by a combination of WWTPs and discharge to constructed wetlands. It is well recognized that microbial and plant communities are responsible for contaminant removal in constructed and natural wetlands, however, optimizing the process has been limited by a lack of understanding of the roles, and interaction among these wetland species.The goal of our research program is to understand how three-way interactions occurring between plants, fungi and bacteria affect contaminant and pathogen removal in constructed and natural wetlands, and how the interactions can be improved in order to increase contaminant removal. Through field and laboratory studies, we will describe relationships among wetland biota, gauge contaminant removal efficiencies of select groupings of plant/fungal and bacterial communities, measure the stability of these groups and identify specific processes involved. Our research will address the questions: How do site conditions and dominant plant species affect microbial community structure? Do different groupings of plant, fungal and bacterial communities differ in contaminant removal efficiency? How stable are the communities? What mechanisms underlie the efficiency of a given community? Addressing these questions will lead to better wetland management strategies in the ongoing use of these systems to protect clean water.