Bioremediation of ammonia using native bacterial strains and developed synthetic consortia from aquaculture wastewater in Tuticorin, Southeast coast of India
摘要
Excessive ammonia accumulation in aquaculture effluents poses significant ecological and production challenges, necessitating sustainable remediation approaches. The present study reports the isolation and characterization of indigenous ammonia-utilizing bacteria from shrimp pond wastewater in Tuticorin, Southeast coast of India, and a comparative assessment of their utilization efficiencies as individual strains and synthetic consortia. Eleven isolates belonging to Bacillus, Pseudomonas, Burkholderia, Nitrosomonas, Rhizobacterium, and Agrobacterium spp. were identified through phenotypic characterization and 16S rRNA sequencing. Individual strains demonstrated 30–70% ammonia removal within 10 days, with Nitrosomonas sp. exhibiting the highest efficiency (70%). Based on compatibility assays, five three-species consortia (C1–C5) were formulated. Among these, consortia C3 (Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, Burkholderia paludis, Nitrosomonas sp.) and C4 (Burkholderia cepacia, Nitrosomonas sp., Burkholderia seminalis) achieved superior performance, attaining approximately 85% ammonia utilization by day 10 under optimal conditions. The relatively balanced distribution within the consortia suggested potential cooperative or niche-partitioning effects. These results underscore the importance of species compatibility when designing microbial consortia and potential of synergistic indigenous microbial consortia as effective bioaugmentation agents for aquaculture wastewater treatment.