Phosphorus Accumulating Organisms and Biogeochemical Hotspots

Despite extensive research, many of the processes that control phosphorus (P) movement from agricultural fields to streams and lakes are not well understood. This limits our ability to develop management strategies that will mediate P contamination of freshwater ecosystems and subsequent eutrophication. Recent advances in molecular microbiology have prompted a paradigm shift in wastewater treatment that recognizes and exploits the ways specific microbial processes influence P solubility. Central to this enhanced biological phosphorus removal in wastewater treatment plants is a relatively recently discovered microorganism, Candidatus accumulibacter, which takes-up P and stores it internally as polyphosphate under alternating aerobic and anaerobic conditions. Within the past few months we have discovered this organism in the natural environment and its role in P biogeochemistry is unclear. We speculate that it may function similarly in variable source areas, which experience cycles of saturation and desaturation, as it does in the anaerobic- aerobic cycles in a wastewater treatment plant. If so, there may be potential opportunities to realize similarly new perspectives and advancements in the watershed context as have been seen in wastewater technologies. Here we present some of our preliminary findings.