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Enhancing nitrogen removal in antibiotic-contaminated sediments: The remediation potential of Tubifex tubifex

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Sediment nitrogen (N) removal is critical in eutrophic aquatic ecosystems but is often impaired by antibiotic stress. While Tubifex tubifex has shown potential to enhance N removal, its effectiveness and underlying mechanisms under antibiotic exposure remain unclear. A lab-scale trial investigated sediment N removal under antibiotic stress by the addition of T. tubifex . The results showed that the addition of T. tubifex accelerated sediment organic matter (OM) and N loss under antibiotic stress, with averages of 25.5% and 20.5% increased loss (IL) in both antibiotics and T. tubifex addition treatment compared to treatment only-antibiotics addition in the 120-day experiment, respectively. The percentages of the increased in water to the IL in sediment were only 1.4%, 0.3%, 2.5% and 0.5% for NH 4 + -N, NO x - -N, TN and COD, respectively, at the end of the experiment. In general, the absolute abundances of nitrifying genes (AOA, AOB, and nxrA ) and denitrifying genes ( napA , narG , nirS , nirK , qnorB , and nosZ ) decreased by 3.3- to 196.7-fold following the only-addition of antibiotics, but increased by 1.7- to 194.1-fold with the co-addition of T. tubifex . Therefore, adding T. tubifex is an effective strategy for sediment N removal under antibiotic stress without substantially increasing the water N concentration, which provides support for sediment remediation in eutrophic aquatic ecosystems affected by antibiotic pollution.

Source: Journal of environmental chemical engineering

DOI: 10.1016/j.jece.2025.120240