Accelerating innovation in nitrogen removal bioprocesses through the study of the emerging properties of natural microbial communities of nitrifiers.

简要描述研究背景，包括潜在影响：氮是任何生命形式的基本组成部分：它是合成氨基酸（蛋白质的组成部分）和核酸所必需的。虽然地球大气的78%是由二氮（N2）组成的，但这不能被植物或动物吸收。因此，地球上的氮循环对任何环境都至关重要，因为通过生物和地球化学过程，氮的所有化学形式都是平衡的，促进了各种生态系统的存在。由于人类活动，氮循环在许多环境中是不平衡的。其中包括发生生活和工业用水排放的天然水体。更常见的是，受全球气温上升的影响，NH4+和有机氮的积累促进了对动物和人类有毒的藻类大量繁殖。天然水体中特定氮形态的积累共同减少了其环境多样性，增加了NO和N2O的排放，导致臭氧消耗并导致气候变化。为了平衡环境中的氮循环，减少向水体排放氮是至关重要的。一种可持续的方法是利用能够催化溶解在水中的无机和有机形式的氮转化的天然微生物群落。生物过程的目的是控制这些群落生产N2气体的活动。然而，由于我们对控制氮循环的微生物缺乏了解，这些过程的有效性受到了损害。在此之前，典型硝化一直被认为是由两个特定的官能团进行的，而反硝化则是由异养细菌进行的。然而，在过去的几十年里，关于生物氮循环的知识发生了巨大的变化。例如，厌氧氨氧化（Anammox）的发现，能够作为氨氧化细菌（AOA和AOB）进行氨氧化的古细菌（AOA和AOB）的分离，能够进行完全氨氧化的硝化spira （Comammox）的分离以及对反硝化及其微生物群落的了解都发生在过去的50年里。所有这些新知识都允许加强生物废水处理过程，减少N2O的排放和氧气的消耗。但是，新的科学问题也提出了：如果AOB和AOA进行相同的生物过程，它们怎么可能在同一环境中共存？这种共存如何影响自然和工程过程中的硝化和反硝化？自然环境下AOB与AOA的生态位分化是什么？目的与目标：该项目的目的是探讨上述科学问题，分析当前文献资料，收集硝化菌的动力学参数，并建立最先进的数学模型来描述它们的生长。这些模型将研究环境条件，如pH值、温度或盐度对微生物活性的影响，并最终对生物工程过程的影响。这一理论分析将通过格拉斯哥大学水与环境部门开展的实验进行验证和验证。其目的将是加速生物工艺的创新，能够为水流（废物或/和饮用水处理）中的氮去除提出新的解决方案。研究方法的新颖性：我们将使用全面的数学模型来详细描述微生物活动及其在微观水平上对当地环境的影响。这将用于预测生物过程功能在受控操作条件下的性能和处理过的进水特性。这些数学模型

Brief description of the context of the research including potential impact:Nitrogen is a fundamental constituent of any form of life: it is necessary for the synthesis of amino acids (building blocks of proteins) and nucleic acids. Although the atmosphere of Earth is composed of 78% dinitrogen (N2), this cannot be assimilated by plants or animals. For this reason, the nitrogen cycle on Earth is essential to any environment because through biological and geochemical processes all the chemical forms of nitrogen are balanced, promoting the existence of diverse ecosystems. Owing to human activity, the nitrogen cycle is unbalanced in many environments. These include natural water bodies where discharge of domestic and industrial waters happens. More often, favored by the global rise of temperatures, the accumulation of NH4+ and organic forms of nitrogen facilitates the presence of algae blooms that can be toxic to animals and humans. Together, the accumulation of specific nitrogen forms in natural waters reduces their environmental diversity and increases NO and N2O emissions, inducing ozone depletion and contributing to climate change.To balance the nitrogen cycle in the environment, the reduction of nitrogen discharges to water bodies is fundamental. A sustainable way of doing this is using natural microbial communities able to catalyze the transformation of inorganic and organic forms of nitrogen dissolved in water. Bioprocesses aim to control the activity of these communities towards the production of N2 gas. However, the effectiveness of these processes is compromised by our lack of understanding of the microorganisms that control the nitrogen cycle. Before, canonical nitrification was always considered to be carried by two specific functional groups and denitrification by heterotrophic bacteria. However, in the last decades, the knowledge about the biological nitrogen cycle has dramatically change. For instance, the discovery of anaerobic ammonia oxidation (Anammox), the isolation of archaea able to perform ammonia oxidation as ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOA and AOB), the isolation of a Nitrospira specie capable to perform the complete ammonia oxidation (Comammox) and the understanding of denitrification and its microbial community have happen in the last 50 years. All this new knowledge permitted the enhance of the biological wastewater treatment process, reducing the emission of N2O and the consumption of oxygen. But also, new scientific questions have raised: How is possible that AOB and AOA co exist in the same environment if both carry out the same biological process? How does this coexistence affect nitrification and denitrification at natural and engineering process? Which is the niche differentiation between AOB and AOA at natural environments?Aims and objectives:The objective of this project is to explore the above scientific questions analyzing the current information in the literature, collecting the kinetic parameters of nitrifiers and developing state-of-the-art mathematical models to describe their growth. These models will study the effect of environmental conditions such as pH, temperature or salinity over the microbial activity and ultimately over the bioengineered process. This theoretical analysis will be verified and validated through experiments developed here at the Division of Water and Environment of the University of Glasgow. The aim will be to accelerate innovation in bioprocesses being able to propose novel solutions for nitrogen removal in water streams (waste or/and drinking water treatments). Novelty of the research methodology:We are going to use comprehensive mathematical models able to describe microbial activity in detail and its impact in the local environment at the microscale level. This will be used to predict the performance of bioprocesses function on controlled operational conditions and the characteristics of the influent treated. These mathematical models