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Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi improve treatment performance and vegetative resilience in constructed wetlands exposed to microplastics
Summary
This study found that adding beneficial fungi to constructed wetlands significantly improved their ability to remove microplastics and nutrients from wastewater, boosting nitrogen removal by 45.7% and phosphate removal by 25.3%. The fungi helped plants resist the stress caused by microplastic contamination and maintained healthier microbial communities. These enhanced wetlands could serve as a natural, low-cost method for reducing the microplastics that escape from wastewater treatment plants into the environment.
Microplastics are increasingly present in municipal wastewater and wastewater treatment plant effluent, prompting the use of constructed wetlands (CWs) for additional treatment. Enhancing CWs with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), known to aid nutrient removal and alleviate plant pollution stress, is gaining interest. This study is the first to examine the influence of two microplastic polymers (polyethylene microspheres and polyester microfibers) at concentrations of 0.1 and 1 mg/L on nutrient removal, plant health, and microbial composition in AMF-inoculated CWs. The results indicate that AMF inoculation combined with microplastic treatments significantly enhances nutrient removal in wetlands, achieving a 45.7% increase in total nitrogen removal and a 25.3% increase in phosphate removal. The effects of microplastics on plant health vary depending on the inoculation status, with an increase in lipid peroxidation (73.4% ± 25.4), and a decrease in the effective quantum yield of PSII (13.4% ± 5) observed in all treatments. High concentrations of polyester microfibers significantly altered the microbial community, increasing AMF colonization frequency and microbial richness, decreasing evenness and the abundance of denitrifying genera, and creating distinct clusters in beta diversity analysis. AMF inoculation maintained higher species richness and evenness, contributing to the resilience of CWs to microplastic pollution. Overall, AMF-inoculated wetlands and plants showed superior treatment performance, highlighting the successful bio-augmentation potential of this approach.
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