Floating Treatment Wetlands Receiving Antibiotic Mixtures (Completed)
Significance:
Exposure to specific antibiotic in livestock manure and wastewater may influence the population structure of denitrifying bacteria communities and activity of microbial denitrification in soils, sediments and adjacent wetland treatment systems.
Objective:
Improve our understanding of the cumulative effect of nitrification inhibitors and veterinary antibiotics on nitrogen transformation in wetlands.
Hypothesis:
Antibiotics and nitrification inhibitors will limit denitrification occurrence in wetlands
Conclusions:
Results from each of the three experimental periods indicated the presence of veterinary antibiotics and nitrification inhibitors induced a stimulatory response from microbial communities, leading to increases in nitrate-N removal.
Nitrate-N removal response was observed largely within the first 48 hours of exposure, suggesting microbial changes due to agrochemical mixture exposure are limited to the first few days after introduction.
Plant uptake was observed in all trials for antibiotics, with the majority of agrochemical residues being observed in the below surface biomass (roots).
Nitrapyrin was not observed in any studied environmental compartment (water, plant biomass, soil) after the 10-day exposure period.
Funded: USDA-NIFA
Publication:
Russell, M., Messer, T.L., Bartelt-Hunt, S., Snow, D.D., Smith, R.L., Repert, D.A., and Reed, A.P. 2024. Influence of Four Veterinary Antibiotics on Constructed Wetland Nitrogen Transformation. Toxics. 12(5): 346. doi: 10.3390/toxics12050346
Graduate Student: Matthew Russell