Wastewater constituents impact biofilm microbial community in receiving streams

Microbial life in natural biofilms is dominated by prokaryotes and microscopic eukaryotes living in dense association. In stream ecosystems, microbial biofilms influence primary production, elemental cycles, food web interactions as well as water quality. Understanding how biofilm communities respond to anthropogenic impacts, such as wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent, is important given the key role of biofilms in stream ecosystem function. Here, we implemented 16S and 18S rRNA gene sequencing of stream biofilms upstream (US) and downstream (DS) of WWTP effluents in four Swiss streams to test how bacterial and eukaryotic communities respond to wastewater constituents. Stream biofil…