Effect of Wastewater on the Composition of Bacterial Microbiota of Phragmites australis Used in Constructed Wetlands for Phytodepuration

Abstract

Phytodepuration occurs in the plant-mediated remediation processes exploited to remove pollutants from wastewater, and Phragmites australis is one of the most used plants. This goal is achieved using constructed wetlands (CW), which are engineered systems designed to mimic the natural processes of pollutants removal. The aim of this work was to characterize the bacterial communities associated to P. australis, soils, and permeates of the CW of Calice (Prato, Italy), to evaluate the possible effect of wastewaters on the CW bacterial communities, through a next-generation sequencing-based approach. A total of 122 samples were collected from different tissues of P. australis (i.e., roots, aerial parts, and stem), soil (i.e., rhizospheric and bulk soil), and permeates, and analyzed. All samples were collected during five sampling campaigns, with the first one performed before the activation of the plant. Obtained results highlighted a specific microbiota of P. australis, conserved among the different plant tissues and during time, showing a lower alpha diversity than the other samples and not influenced by the more complex and variable environmental (soils and permeates) bacterial communities. These data suggest that P. australis is able to select and maintain a defined microbiota, a capacity that could allow the plant to survive in hostile environments, such as that of CW.