TY - JOUR
T1 - From farm-scale to lab-scale
T2 - The characterization of engineered irrigation water distribution system biofilm models using an artificial freshwater source
AU - Ngan, W. Y.
AU - Habimana, O.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2020/1/1
Y1 - 2020/1/1
N2 - Contaminants in freshwater environments, as well as the associated negative impacts on agricultural produce, have emerged as a critical theme of the water–energy–food nexus affecting food safety and irrigation management. Agricultural produce exposed to irrigation with questionable freshwater can internalize and concentrate pollutants. However, the potential risks posed by the ubiquitous presence of biofilms within irrigation water distribution systems (IWDS) remains overlooked, even though such biofilms may harbor and spread pathogenic, chemical, and other environmental pollutants. Our limited knowledge about the role and functional attributes of IWDS biofilms can be blamed mostly to experimental challenges encountered during attempted studies of these biofilms in their natural environments. Hence, a laboratory-based experimental system designed to simulate a freshwater environment was combined with a biofilm reactor capable of recreating the piping environments in water distribution systems. This experimental system was then tested to assess the robustness and repeatability of experimental early-stage biofilms with respect to physical structure and microbial community, using state-of-the-art confocal microscopy and next-generation sequencing, respectively. The results demonstrated the suitability of this laboratory-based experimental system for studying the impacts of selected pollutants on irrigation water distribution systems.
AB - Contaminants in freshwater environments, as well as the associated negative impacts on agricultural produce, have emerged as a critical theme of the water–energy–food nexus affecting food safety and irrigation management. Agricultural produce exposed to irrigation with questionable freshwater can internalize and concentrate pollutants. However, the potential risks posed by the ubiquitous presence of biofilms within irrigation water distribution systems (IWDS) remains overlooked, even though such biofilms may harbor and spread pathogenic, chemical, and other environmental pollutants. Our limited knowledge about the role and functional attributes of IWDS biofilms can be blamed mostly to experimental challenges encountered during attempted studies of these biofilms in their natural environments. Hence, a laboratory-based experimental system designed to simulate a freshwater environment was combined with a biofilm reactor capable of recreating the piping environments in water distribution systems. This experimental system was then tested to assess the robustness and repeatability of experimental early-stage biofilms with respect to physical structure and microbial community, using state-of-the-art confocal microscopy and next-generation sequencing, respectively. The results demonstrated the suitability of this laboratory-based experimental system for studying the impacts of selected pollutants on irrigation water distribution systems.
KW - 16S metagenomics
KW - Annular biofilm reactor
KW - Biofilm structural and microbial dynamics
KW - Confocal laser scanning microscopy
KW - Irrigation water distribution system
KW - Laboratory-based simulated freshwater source
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85071625188&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.134025
DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.134025
M3 - 文章
C2 - 31493571
AN - SCOPUS:85071625188
SN - 0048-9697
VL - 698
JO - Science of the Total Environment
JF - Science of the Total Environment
M1 - 134025
ER -