Nitrifying reactor maintains a diverse archaeal and bacterial community after nine years of applying ammonium as sole energy source

The microbial community was determined in a nitrifying reactor supplied with only ammonium as energy and carbonate as C source was maintained under similar conditions for > 9 years. Although the nitrifier reactor had been supplied with ammonium as the only energy source and carbonate as the only C provided for 7 years, the nitrifying population maintained a diverse bacterial and archaeal population.