Influence of seasonality, wastewater treatment plant process, geographical location and environmental parameters on microbial community selection in selected South African activated sludge wastewater treatment plants treating municipal effluent

The study was conducted to assess the influence of seasonality, wastewater treatment plant process (configuration), geographical location (site) and a comprehensive set of environmental variables on bacterial community selection. Furthermore, the primary environmental drivers impacting on bacterial selection were determined and results obtained with TRFLP were compared with those obtained using the Illumina MiSeq platform.