Citation:

Rauglas, E., S. Martin, K. Bailey, C. Starr, M. Magnuson, R. Phillips, AND W. Harper. The Effect of Malathion on the Activity, Performance, and Microbial Ecology of Activated Sludge. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT. Elsevier Science Ltd, New York, NY, , 220-228, (2016).

Impact/Purpose:

This study evaluated the effect of malathion on the activity, performance, and ecology of activated sludge bioreactors. In the presence of malathion, the maximum observed respiration rates varied between 43 and 53 µg/O2 min, generally similar to the 49 µg O2/min rates observed in controls. Malathion did not alter the respiration ratio of O2 consumed-to-CO2 produced nor did it impact the shape of the oxygen consumption curves during respirometry. Short term batch tests showed that both chemical oxygen demand (COD) and ammonia removal were not negatively impacted by the presence of 0.1 – 3 mg/L malathion. Longer term continuous addition (i.e. 40 days) of 0.1 mg/L of malathion had no effect on COD and ammonia removal but 3 mg/L of malathion inhibited both COD and N removal and was associated with shifts in the abundance of species that are common to activated sludge. These results demonstrate the robustness of microbial communities carrying out microbial respiration, COD removal, and nitrification in the presence of malathion.

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Journal Article

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