Effects of Reclaimed Wastewater Irrigation on Soil Health and Environment

Provide a description (a paragraph) of the study goals and relevance: Secondary treated wastewater (TWW) is spray irrigated to many agroecosystems in the US as a way to recycle water and couple this process for plant growth. The residual nitrogen in TWW can pose a problem in porous sandy soil by infiltrating into the groundwater causing eutrophication problems when it drains to lakes, estuaries and the oceans, such as the Gulf of Mexico. This project entails study of the nitrogen cycling microbiota in soils that have received TWW for decades. Specifically, complete and incomplete denitrifying bacteria are being studied in the project by metagenomics and qPCR of key genes in the denitrification pathway, as well as total bacterial and fungal communities; correlations with soil biogeochemical parameters using statistical analysis will also be performed. Such studies will obtain a comprehensive understanding on nitrogen cycling processes and potential manipulation of desired soil microbiota to enhance denitrification and mitigation of groundwater contamination