Recharging aquifers with aerobic recycled water.

By: Bianca Rojas

Aquifers are anaerobic environments and are able to recharge when a rain event occurs near the recharge zone. But what if the recharge zone is fed aerobically treated recycled water? How is the microbe diversity affected? A study conducted in Western Australia conducted an assessment of the before and after microbiological counts and microbiological diversity when introducing aerobic treated recycled water into an aquifer through it's recharge zone. Even though elevated redox potentials and an increase in bacteria counts were observed, the microbiological diversity decreased as the depth increased. An increase in denitrifiers and sulfur-oxidizing populations is thought to be the reason for an increase in bacterial numbers and the decrease for microbiological diversity.

Figure from Ginige et. Al. (2013) The abundance of the 16S rRNA gene copy number of identified bacterial order relative to the total bacterial copy numbers before and after recharge.

 

Original Article:
Ginige M.P., Kaksonen A. H., Morris C., Shackelton M. Patterson B.M. (2013). Bacterial community and groundwater quality changes in an anaerobic aquifer during groundwater recharge with aerobic recycled water. FEMS Microbiology Ecology. Vol. 85. Issue 3: 553-567