Morphological examination of nitrifying biofilms in a moving bed biofilm reactor using optical coherence tomography and fluorescence in situ hybridization

Alex F. Rosenthal*, Oluwaseyi Balogun, George Wells

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

We present an imaging and image analysis approach to quantify both the overall morphology and the spatial distribution of nitrifying guilds in mixed-culture, nitrifying biofilms enriched on K1 carriers. For image acquisition we used optical coherence tomography to non-destructively visualize the three dimensional structure of entire internal cavities and fluorescent in situ hybridization of carrier cryosections to visualize the spatial distribution of ammonia oxidizing bacteria and nitrite oxidizing relative to the overall biofilm structure. Determination of morphological parameters relies on the adaptation of current image analysis methods to accommodate the complex, curved geometry of MBBR carriers.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationWEFTEC 2016 - 89th Water Environment Federation Annual Technical Exhibition and Conference
PublisherWater Environment Federation
Pages4546-4555
Number of pages10
ISBN (Electronic)9781510870475
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2016
Event89th Annual Water Environment Federation Technical Exhibition and Conference, WEFTEC 2016 - New Orleans, United States
Duration: Sep 24 2016Sep 28 2016

Publication series

NameWEFTEC 2016 - 89th Water Environment Federation Annual Technical Exhibition and Conference
Volume5

Conference

Conference89th Annual Water Environment Federation Technical Exhibition and Conference, WEFTEC 2016
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityNew Orleans
Period9/24/169/28/16

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Ecological Modeling
  • Environmental Chemistry
  • Pollution
  • Waste Management and Disposal
  • Water Science and Technology

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