Microfauna Community as an Indicator of Effluent Quality and Operational Parameters in an Activated Sludge System for Treating Piggery Wastewater

In order to study the potential use of microfauna as an indicator of effluent quality and operational parameters in an activated sludge system for treating piggery wastewater, an experimental sequencing batch reactor was set up and evaluated by biological and physical-chemical analyses for 12 months. Results show that microfauna (and specifically ciliate protozoa) are a good parameter for assessing effluent quality in terms of both chemical oxygen demand (COD) and ammonia and for assessing the organic and nitrogen load of the system. Specifically, the abundance of ciliates decreases from 20,000 individuals·mL⁻¹ to ca. 2,500 individuals·mL⁻¹ and from ca. 10,000 individuals mL⁻¹ to ca. 200 individuals mL⁻¹ when effluent concentration is between 550 and 750 mg L⁻¹ and above 100 mg L⁻¹ to the COD and ammonia concentrations, respectively. Furthermore, microfauna abundance is reduced from ca. 18,000 individuals mL⁻¹ (organic load between 0.1 and 0.2 mg COD mg total suspended solids (TSS)⁻¹ day⁻¹) to ca. 500 individuals mL⁻¹ (organic load between 0.3 and 04 mg COD mg TSS⁻¹ day⁻¹). Microfauna abundance also decreases as nitrogen loading increases. Nitrogen loading in the range of 5-60 mg NH₄-N g TSS⁻¹ day⁻¹ does not have any significant effect on microfauna abundance. However, ammonia loading from 60 to 120 mg NH₄-N g TSS⁻¹ day⁻¹ reduces microfauna abundance ca. 6-fold. Ciliate protozoa were the largest microfauna group during the whole period of study, representing ca. 75% of the total microfauna abundance. The largest group in the ciliate community was that of the free-swimming ciliates. This was followed by the group of attached and crawling ciliates. Specifically, the dominant ciliate species during the whole study period were Uronema nigricans, Vorticella microstoma-complex, Epistylis coronata, and Acineria uncinata.