Characterization of archaeal and bacterial communities in UASB reactors fed pig manure supernatant, operated at high ammonia concentrations

Four UASB reactors fed pig manure supernatant were operated at two ammonium concentrations (1.9 and 3.7 g L-1 for LA and HA reactors, respectively) and at variable temperatures over 358 days. The granules used as inoculum originated from a UASB reactor treating pulp and paper process wastewater. The reactors were all operated at HRT 1.0 day. The organic loading rate (OLR) was 16±2 g COD L-1 d-1 for the entire experiment. Archaeal and bacterial communities were characterized by Illumina sequencing of 16S rRNA amplicons covering the v3 and v4 regions.