Spatial and temporal investigation of the microbial communities within laboratory scale biologically active carbon filters.

This study aims to provide a high resolution spatial and temporal profile of microbial community dynamics in laboratory scale biological activated carbon filters from start up to six months of operation. Depth and time were significant drivers of variance (24% and 15%, p < 0.001), though 79% of biomass was located in the top 15cm, dominated by a stochastically assembled group of primary colonisers. Differential abundance analysis confirmed that the dominant primary colonisers did not significantly change in absolute number over time, however maintained their relative abundance. Instead changes in biomass were driven by rare deterministically selected taxa, dynamically changing over time. Demonstrating that changes in biomass and diversity are driven by rare taxa around a generally stable and unchanging core of primary colonisers seeded from the influent water.