Potable water pipe-wall biofilm bacterial community response to conditioning shear stress and a hydraulic disturbance in a full-scale pipe loop facility.
C. J. Smith*, R. Sharpe** I. Douterelo** and J. B. Boxall**
*School of Natural Sciences, Microbiology, NUI Galway, University Road, Galway, Ireland.**Pennine Water Group, Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, Sir Frederick Mappin Building, Mappin Street, University of Sheffield, Sheffield,
S1 3JD, UK.E-mail: [email protected]
Shear stress (N/m²)
coupon removal
0.44
0.96
1.1
1.65
2.2
0.66
The Problem: Discolouration of potable water, due to fine insoluble particles, is a major cause for
customer contacts to water companies. Within Water Distribution Systems (WDS) pipe walls are sites for
biofilm development and the accumulation of particulate material. The stability and amount of material
accumulated is known to be influenced by the maximum shear stress exerted by the daily flow profile but the
processes and mechanisms explicitly involved are poorly understood. Mobilisation of material into the bulk
water occurs when shear stress exceeds the conditioning values (Husband et al 2008).
The Hypothesis: Biofilms play an important role in understanding causes and consequences of material
layer at the pipe wall and hence in discolouration.
The Objective: To examine the effect of shear stress on biofilm bacteria community development and the
subsequent response of WDS biofilm bacterial communities to increased hydraulic conditions in a full scale
WDS test facility.
Biofilm microbial cells
pipe wall
EPSwater flow
Fe & Mn
.
Biofilm microbial cells
pipe wall
EPSwater flow
Fe & Mn
Increasing Shear Stress
• 3 x 200m pipe-loop test facility
• Biofilm material layers were accumulated for 28 days at
8°C under three different steady state boundary shear
stresses – 0.11, 0.22 and 0.44 (N/m²).
• After 28 days, each loop was individually flushed
according to figure 3. Each flushing step was conducted for
three turnovers of water.
• Turbidity and DAPI cell counts were measured in the bulk
water after three turnovers.
• Coupons were taken before and after the flushing event to
analyze the bacterial community on the pipe wall.
Figure 1: Pipe wall biofilm formation and drinking water discoloration with increasing shear stress above daily conditioning shear.
Experimental Set-up & Methodology
Figure 2: The temperature controlled pipe loop test facility. Insert the Pennine Water Group coupon (Deines et al., 2010), 52 coupons are inserted along the length of each loop to facilitate examination of the pipe-wall biofilm.
Figure 3: Schematic of incremental shear stress applied
to each loop. Star indicates coupon removal.
• DNA was extracted from coupon and the 16S rRNA
gene amplified for T-RFLP, Q-PCR and gene
sequencing.
2D Stress: 0.08
Figure 4: MDS analysis of T-RFLP data from
loop 1, 2 & 3 pipe wall after 28 days at 8°C.
ANOSIM analysis showed that conditioning
shear stress had no effect on pipe wall biofilm
community structure (R = 0.095, P = 0.2).
Loop 1 0.11 N/m²Loop 2 0.22 N/m²Loop 3 0.44 N/m²
A: DAPI cell counts in drinking water after each incremental increase in shear
0
2.0106
4.0106
6.0106 P =0.2139 P =0.9863 P =0.7351
Low Medium High
16S
rR
NA
ge
ne
s m
m2
Similarity (%) 50
A: Loop 1
Transform: Square root Resemblance: S17 Bray Curtis similarity
2D Stress: 0.07B : Loop 2
Transform: Square root Resemblance: S17 Bray Curtis similarity
2D Stress: 0.07
C: Loop 3
Coupon Pre-flush
Transform: Square rootResemblance: S17 Bray Curtis similarity
2D Stress: 0.08
Coupon Post-flush
Summary
•Conditioning shear stresses did not affect the bacterial community structure of a 28-day-old biofilm.
•Conditioning shear stress did affect mobilization of material into the bulk water - more material was
mobilized by the lowest conditioning shear stress than the highest.
•Pipe wall biofilm community structure and 16S rRNA gene copy numbers were not altered by the
mobilization event
• Results are moving us closer to an understanding of the link between
daily conditioning shear, biofilm formation and discoloration.
• Flushing alone will not remove bacteria from WDS pipe-wall.
Significance
Conditioning shear stress and biofilm community structure
Green line indicates 50% community similarity based on Bray-Curtis similarity index.
Conditioning shear stress and mobilization of pipe-wall material
Shear stress (N/m2)
Turb
idity
(NTU
)
B: Turbidity (NTU) after each incremental increase in shear
The effect of the mobilization event on pipe-wall biofilm community structure
D: Q-PCR of biofilm
Figure 5: A) DAPI cell counts and B) turbidity in drinking
water after each incremental increase in shear stress for
loops 1, 2 & 3.
The most material was mobilized from loop 1,
conditioned at the lowest daily shear, as
evidenced by the increase in cell numbers and
turbidity in the drinking water.
Figure 6: (A-C) MDS analysis of T-RFLP data from loop 1, 2 & 3 before &
after mobilization. ANOSIM analysis showed no difference in community
structure before and after the mobilization event for any loop. (D) 16S
rRNA gene copy numbers mm2 of pipe-wall before and after mobilization.
No statistical difference in gene copy numbers was observed.