Monitoring of the microbial community of a sequencing batch reactor bioaugmented to improve its phosphorus removal capabilities

The acclimatisation of an activated sludge to enhanced biological phosphoru s removal conditions was followed after and without bioaugmentation with a low amount of phosphorus-accumulating sludge. Phosphorus removal yields wer e monitored by conventional analytical methods and microbial communities ev olutions were followed by a finger printing molecular technique (PCR-SSCP). While the benefit of the bioaugmentation seems real at the level of the re actor parameters, bioaugmentation speeded up the installation of good and s table phosphorus removal yield, the establishment of the inoculated microbi al community in the bioaugmented reactor is still unclear. Both the bioaugm ented and the control microbial communities evolved in a similar way to end up with apparently comparable populations. At the time of the experiment, the results suggest that the microbial community inoculated for the bioaugm entation did not establish in the reactor but compensated for phosphorus ac cumulation until the acclimatisation of an endogenous microbial community a rose.