TY - JOUR
T1 - Investigation of the effect of sustainable magnetic treatment on the microbiological communities in drinking water
AU - Liu, Xiaoxia
AU - Pollner, Bernhard
AU - Paulitsch-Fuchs, Astrid H.
AU - Fuchs, Elmar C.
AU - Dyer, Nigel P.
AU - Loiskandl, Willibald
AU - Lass-Flörl, Cornelia
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was performed in the cooperation framework of Wetsus European Center of Excellence for Sustainable Water Technology ( www.wetsus.eu ) within the Applied Water Physics theme. Wetsus is cofounded by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Ministry of Infra-structure and Environment, The Province of Fryslan and the Northern Netherlands Provinces. The authors thank Pieter van Veelen and Inez Dinkla for fruitful discussions. This research has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 665874 .
Funding Information:
This work was performed in the cooperation framework of Wetsus European Center of Excellence for Sustainable Water Technology (www.wetsus.eu) within the Applied Water Physics theme. Wetsus is cofounded by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Ministry of Infra-structure and Environment, The Province of Fryslan and the Northern Netherlands Provinces. The authors thank Pieter van Veelen and Inez Dinkla for fruitful discussions. This research has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 665874.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors
PY - 2022/10
Y1 - 2022/10
N2 - The drinking water scarcity is posing a threat to mankind, hence better water quality management methods are required. Magnetic water treatment, which has been reported to improve aesthetic water quality and reduce scaling problems, can be an important addition to the traditional disinfectant dependent treatment. Despite the extensive market application opportunities, the effect of magnetic fields on (microbial) drinking water communities and subsequently the biostability is still largely unexplored, although the first patent was registered already 1945. Here flow cytometry was applied to assess the effect of weak magnetic fields (≤10 G) with strong gradients (≈800 G/m) on drinking water microbial communities. Drinking water was collected from the tap and placed inside the magnetic field (treated) and 5 m away from the magnet to avoid any background interferences (control) using both a static set-up and a shaking set-up. Samples were collected during a seven-day period for flow cytometry examination. Additionally, the effects of magnetic fields on the growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in autoclaved tap water were examined. Based on the fluorescent intensity of the stained nucleic acid content, the microbial cells were grouped into low nucleic acid content (LNA) and high nucleic acid content (HNA). Our results show that the LNA was dominant under nutrient limited condition while the HNA dominates when nutrient is more available. Such behavior of LNA and HNA matches well with the long discussed r/K selection model where r-strategists adapted to eutrophic conditions and K-strategists adapted to oligotrophic conditions. The applied magnetic fields selectively promote the growth of LNA under nutrient rich environment, which indicates a beneficial effect on biostability enhancement. Inhibition on an HNA representative Pseudomonas aeruginosa has also been observed. Based on our laboratory observations, we conclude that magnetic field treatment can be a sustainable method for microbial community management with great potential.
AB - The drinking water scarcity is posing a threat to mankind, hence better water quality management methods are required. Magnetic water treatment, which has been reported to improve aesthetic water quality and reduce scaling problems, can be an important addition to the traditional disinfectant dependent treatment. Despite the extensive market application opportunities, the effect of magnetic fields on (microbial) drinking water communities and subsequently the biostability is still largely unexplored, although the first patent was registered already 1945. Here flow cytometry was applied to assess the effect of weak magnetic fields (≤10 G) with strong gradients (≈800 G/m) on drinking water microbial communities. Drinking water was collected from the tap and placed inside the magnetic field (treated) and 5 m away from the magnet to avoid any background interferences (control) using both a static set-up and a shaking set-up. Samples were collected during a seven-day period for flow cytometry examination. Additionally, the effects of magnetic fields on the growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in autoclaved tap water were examined. Based on the fluorescent intensity of the stained nucleic acid content, the microbial cells were grouped into low nucleic acid content (LNA) and high nucleic acid content (HNA). Our results show that the LNA was dominant under nutrient limited condition while the HNA dominates when nutrient is more available. Such behavior of LNA and HNA matches well with the long discussed r/K selection model where r-strategists adapted to eutrophic conditions and K-strategists adapted to oligotrophic conditions. The applied magnetic fields selectively promote the growth of LNA under nutrient rich environment, which indicates a beneficial effect on biostability enhancement. Inhibition on an HNA representative Pseudomonas aeruginosa has also been observed. Based on our laboratory observations, we conclude that magnetic field treatment can be a sustainable method for microbial community management with great potential.
KW - Drinking water
KW - Flowcytometry
KW - magnetic water treatment
KW - microbial community
KW - UT-Hybrid-D
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85132428717&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.envres.2022.113638
DO - 10.1016/j.envres.2022.113638
M3 - Article
C2 - 35705130
SN - 0013-9351
VL - 213
JO - Environmental Research
JF - Environmental Research
M1 - 113638
ER -