TY - JOUR

T1 - Exploring the efficacy of metabarcoding and non-target screening for detecting treated wastewater

AU - Sieber, Guido

AU - Drees, Felix

AU - Shah, Manan

AU - Stach, Tom L.

AU - Hohrenk-Danzouma, Lotta

AU - Bock, Christina

AU - Vosough, Maryam

AU - Schumann, Mark

AU - Sures, Bernd

AU - Probst, Alexander J.

AU - Schmidt, Torsten C.

AU - Beisser, Daniela

AU - Boenigk, Jens

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Authors

PY - 2023/12/10

Y1 - 2023/12/10

N2 - Wastewater treatment processes can eliminate many pollutants, yet remainder pollutants contain organic compounds and microorganisms released into ecosystems. These remainder pollutants have the potential to adversely impact downstream ecosystem processes, but their presence is currently not being monitored. This study was set out with the aim of investigating the effectiveness and sensitivity of non-target screening of chemical compounds, 18S V9 rRNA gene, and full-length 16S rRNA gene metabarcoding techniques for detecting treated wastewater in receiving waters. We aimed at assessing the impact of introducing 33 % treated wastewater into a triplicated large-scale mesocosm setup during a 10-day exposure period. Discharge of treated wastewater significantly altered the chemical signature as well as the microeukaryotic and prokaryotic diversity of the mesocosms. Non-target screening, 18S V9 rRNA gene, and full-length 16S rRNA gene metabarcoding detected these changes with significant covariation of the detected pattern between methods. The 18S V9 rRNA gene metabarcoding exhibited superior sensitivity immediately following the introduction of treated wastewater and remained one of the top-performing methods throughout the study. Full-length 16S rRNA gene metabarcoding demonstrated sensitivity only in the initial hour, but became insignificant thereafter. The non-target screening approach was effective throughout the experiment and in contrast to the metabarcoding methods the signal to noise ratio remained similar during the experiment resulting in an increasing relative strength of this method. Based on our findings, we conclude that all methods employed for monitoring environmental disturbances from various sources are suitable. The distinguishing factor of these methods is their ability to detect unknown pollutants and organisms, which sets them apart from previously utilized approaches and allows for a more comprehensive perspective. Given their diverse strengths, particularly in terms of temporal resolution, these methods are best suited as complementary approaches.

AB - Wastewater treatment processes can eliminate many pollutants, yet remainder pollutants contain organic compounds and microorganisms released into ecosystems. These remainder pollutants have the potential to adversely impact downstream ecosystem processes, but their presence is currently not being monitored. This study was set out with the aim of investigating the effectiveness and sensitivity of non-target screening of chemical compounds, 18S V9 rRNA gene, and full-length 16S rRNA gene metabarcoding techniques for detecting treated wastewater in receiving waters. We aimed at assessing the impact of introducing 33 % treated wastewater into a triplicated large-scale mesocosm setup during a 10-day exposure period. Discharge of treated wastewater significantly altered the chemical signature as well as the microeukaryotic and prokaryotic diversity of the mesocosms. Non-target screening, 18S V9 rRNA gene, and full-length 16S rRNA gene metabarcoding detected these changes with significant covariation of the detected pattern between methods. The 18S V9 rRNA gene metabarcoding exhibited superior sensitivity immediately following the introduction of treated wastewater and remained one of the top-performing methods throughout the study. Full-length 16S rRNA gene metabarcoding demonstrated sensitivity only in the initial hour, but became insignificant thereafter. The non-target screening approach was effective throughout the experiment and in contrast to the metabarcoding methods the signal to noise ratio remained similar during the experiment resulting in an increasing relative strength of this method. Based on our findings, we conclude that all methods employed for monitoring environmental disturbances from various sources are suitable. The distinguishing factor of these methods is their ability to detect unknown pollutants and organisms, which sets them apart from previously utilized approaches and allows for a more comprehensive perspective. Given their diverse strengths, particularly in terms of temporal resolution, these methods are best suited as complementary approaches.

KW - Metabarcoding

KW - Monitoring

KW - Non-target screening

KW - Treated wastewater

KW - Chemistry

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85173182371&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.167457

DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.167457

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 37777125

AN - SCOPUS:85173182371

VL - 903

JO - Science of the Total Environment

JF - Science of the Total Environment

SN - 0048-9697

M1 - 167457

ER -