Microbiological Approaches to Water Pollution Control and Water Ecological Restoration

A special issue of Microorganisms (ISSN 2076-2607). This special issue belongs to the section "Microbial Biotechnology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 347

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
1. State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China
2. State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Environment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China
Interests: membrane fouling; microbial electrosynthesis; water supply security; red water control

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Guest Editor
School of Environmental Science and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300350, China
Interests: water treatment theory and technology; pipe network water quality research; environmental micro interface process research; colloidal pollutants; pollutant migration
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Key Laboratory of Clean Energy Utilization and Pollutant Control in Tianjin, School of Energy and Environmental Engineering, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300401, China
Interests: water pollution control technologies; ecological restoration engineering; microbial resource recovery; environmental functional microbiota; microbiome-aided water purification

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Globally, aquatic ecosystems are facing unprecedented threats from anthropogenic pollutants, including organic contaminants and nutrient overload. Microbial-mediated processes have emerged as a sustainable solution, leveraging the metabolic versatility of microorganisms to degrade pollutants and restore ecological balance. Artificial wetlands and biological nitrification treatment technologies have deepened our understanding of microbial consortia's role in nutrient cycling and biofilm-mediated bioremediation.

This Special Issue highlights the urgent need to develop scalable microbial technologies capable of addressing challenges such as climate change-driven water scarcity and emerging contaminants. We invite studies presenting innovations bridging fundamental science and field applications. In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to) the following research areas:

  • Microorganisms participating in the process of nitrogen and phosphorus removal;
  • Biochar-enhanced denitrification for wastewater purification;
  • Microorganisms' proliferation in water distribution systems;
  • Improvement of power generation and performance of microbial fuel cells;
  • Microbial population and distribution in large rivers.

Dr. Haiya Zhang
Dr. Weigao Zhao
Dr. Xiaoou Wang
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • microbial bioremediation
  • aquatic microbiome
  • nutrient removal (nitrogen/phosphorus)
  • biofilm-mediated purification
  • artificial wetland microbiology
  • biochar-enhanced wastewater treatment
  • microbial fuel cells (MFCs)
  • emerging contaminants degradation
  • microbial ecology in water distribution systems
  • climate-resilient water restoration

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

18 pages, 3100 KB  
Article
The Influence of Acetate and Sodium Chloride Concentration on the Toxic Response of Electroactive Microorganisms
by Fei Xing, Haiya Zhang, Shuhu Xiao and Hongbin Lu
Microorganisms 2025, 13(9), 2077; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms13092077 (registering DOI) - 6 Sep 2025
Abstract
This study discussed the influence of acetate and sodium chloride concentration on monitoring 2,4-dichlorophenol(2,4-DCP) by electroactive bacteria. The performance of the reactor was represented by power density, and the electrochemical activity was represented by redox capacity. At the same time, micro-electrodes were used [...] Read more.
This study discussed the influence of acetate and sodium chloride concentration on monitoring 2,4-dichlorophenol(2,4-DCP) by electroactive bacteria. The performance of the reactor was represented by power density, and the electrochemical activity was represented by redox capacity. At the same time, micro-electrodes were used to detect the redox potential between biofilms, and the changes in extracellular polymers and microbial community structure under different conditions were also explored. With acetate concentration of 1 g/L and sodium chloride concentration of 0.0125 g/L, the electroactive microorganisms were more sensitive to toxic substances and responded fast. The biofilm also evenly covered on the surface of the carrier, which aided in the diffusion of substances. Although the maximum power density monotonically increased with acetate concentration, high concentration of substrate may mask the inhibitory effect and affect the judgment of inhibitory results. The content of protein and polysaccharide increased monotonically with sodium chloride concentration. However, more polysaccharides would lead to high resistance to electron transfer. Compared to sodium chloride, the microbial content was more affected by acetate. The electroactive microorganisms had strong adaptability to salinity. In practical application, it is conducive to increase the sensitivity of MFCs to reasonably reduce the concentration of acetic acid and sodium chloride. Full article
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