Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 208 (2021) 111419

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Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ecoenv

Research paper

Domestic wastewater infiltration process in desert sandy soil and its

irrigation prospect analysis
Caixia Liu a, Fulai Liu b, Mathias N. Andersen c, Gongming Wang d, Kun Wu a, Quanlin Zhao a,
Zhengfang Ye a, *
a
Department of Environmental Engineering, Peking University, State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of All Materials Flux in Rivers, The Key Laboratory of
Water and Sediment Sciences, Ministry of Education, Beijing 100871, China
b
Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen, Taastrup, Denmark
c
Department of Agroecology, Faculty of Science and Technology, Aarhus University, Tjele, Denmark
d
Department of Automation, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Edited by Professor Bing Yan Although domestic wastewater and its reclaimed water are alternative water resources in arid region, investi­
gation of their negative effect must be done to prevent environmental pollution. In this paper, a short-term
Keywords: column experiment was conducted to simulate the infiltration process of wastewater in desert soil. Alfalfa was
Water reuse planted and irrigated with fresh water for control (CK), tertiary treated domestic wastewater (TTW), secondary
Desert soil restoration
treated domestic wastewater (STW) and raw domestic wastewater untreated (RW). The effect of wastewater
Vegetation recovery
application on desert soil, drainage and plant properties was evaluated. Experimental results demonstrated that
Infiltration
Alfalfa the tested desert soil has no soil structure, organic matter, nor microbial community while possess high infil­
tration rate. The use of wastewater significantly improved plant growth, and the biomass of TTW, RW, STW were
5.5, 4.3, 2.9 times of CK. The infiltration rate of water in bare soil was high (high to low: TTW, CK, RW, STW),
while plant growth reduced infiltration rate (ca. 40% with TTW and RW). Wastewater irrigation and plant
growth decreased soil zeta potential, while increased formation of aggregates and bacterial abundance and di­
versity in soil. Top soil (0–30 cm) accumulation of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), organic matter and E. coli was
evidenced and all could go down to deep soil and drainage with constant wastewater use. It was concluded that
domestic wastewater had big potential in desert soil vegetation recovering and function restoration. Neverthe­
less, the N, salt, P and organic matter and E. coli in wastewater could give rise to desert soil and groundwater
contamination if improper treatment was used.

1. Introduction result, huge amount of domestic wastewater is produced. Domestic

The desert lands are characterized as having large evaporation,
strong winds, sparse vegetation, low precipitation and low groundwater
level (Gross, 2018). While the desert soil usually has low organic matter
content, course soil texture, no soil aggregation and poor water and
fertilizer holding capacity (van Asperen et al., 2014; Laghari et al.,
2015). The shortage of water limited plant growth and yield; the wind
erosion and rare rainfall and uneven rainfall distribution in time and
space has led to frequent dust storms, which seriously affect human
activities such as traffic and construction in these areas.
On the other hand, the demand for freshwater has sharply increased
due to increased population and development of human society. As a
wastewaters mainly come from food preparation, kitchens, baths, rest­
room usage, and laundry (Ma et al., 2019). Due to low population
density, lack of reliable and easy to-implement and low-cost technology
and treatment facilities to collect, treat and reuse of wastewater in an
optimal manner, 11% of the total cultivated area in the world is using
untreated wastewater for irrigation (Thebo et al., 2017). The domestic
wastewater from approximately 96% of the villages in rural areas of
China and 50% of the wastewater in small city is usually untreated and
directly discharged into nearby surface water bodies or to the soil, or
ground, causing serious environmental problems (Zou et al., 2012; Wu
et al., 2013; Han et al., 2016). Most of the domestic wastewater is being
recycled and re-used for agricultural purpose due to lack of freshwater,

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: yezhengfangiee@163.com (Z. Ye).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoenv.2020.111419
Received 26 July 2020; Received in revised form 24 September 2020; Accepted 25 September 2020
Available online 16 October 2020
0147-6513/© 2020 Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
C. Liu et al.
especially in arid and semi-arid area (Hamilton et al., 2007). Domestic
wastewater has a high nutritive content of organic matter, macro- and
micro-nutrients, especially N and P that could promote crop production
(Kiziloglul et al., 2007), benefit soil structure and fertility (Lubello et al.,
2004; Xu et al., 2010; Adrover et al., 2012; Yuan et al., 2019), and profit
soil organic matter accumulation (Angin et al., 2005; Manas et al.,
2009), while has relatively low contaminates compared with industrial
wastewater.
Reuse of wastewater has already been practiced for centuries in arid
and semi-arid countries such as Israel, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Libya,
Egypt, and Tunisia (Shelef, 1991; Abdel-Shafy et al., 2003; Travis et al.,
2010). And around 10% of the people globally are using untreated
wastewater for crop production（Khalid et al., 2018). Using wastewater
for forest irrigation and sand-fixation was also being tried in northwest
of China. However, wastewater reuse may cause environmental risk of
elevated salinity and heavy metal contamination (Abdel-Shafy et al.,
2003; Mohammad and Mazahreh, 2003; Angin et al., 2005; Gupta et al.,
2010; Frenk et al., 2014), soil compaction, and input of pathogens, vi­
ruses, and protozoa (Akponikpe et al., 2011) and nitrogen (N), phos­
phorus (P) and endocrine（Katz et al., 2009; Huang et al., 2019）into
soil and groundwater, as well as the change of the soil microbial com­
munity (Guo et al., 2018).
The main processes of contaminant attenuation in wastewater reuse
include physical filtration, sorption onto the soil particle, microbial
biodegradation and plant uptake. The environmental effect, e.g. changes
of soil properties, plant growth, bacterial communities and change of
soil enzyme activity should be monitored in desert soil following
wastewater application to ensure that the final product quality, soil and
groundwater health and human protection are not compromised (Jung
et al., 2005).
In recent years, although pollutants in wastewater can be predicted
with a higher accuracy (Wang et al., 2020), wastewater management
and sustainable challenge remains for further research. A critical
knowledge gap still exists on how to treat and reuse domestic waste­
water in undeveloped area in northwest China, and how ecosystems
(groundwater, plant and soil) respond to domestic wastewater irrigation
at present. The study of infiltration of wastewater in desert soil could be
used for local wastewater management and advice. Thereupon, this
study aimed to investigate the environmental health risks to soil and
groundwater associated with short term wastewater disposal practices.
In a controlled environment, domestic wastewater of different treatment
levels was applied to desert soil and followed Alfalfa planting. The
infiltration process of wastewater in desert soil was simulated; the effect
of domestic wastewater application on soil, drainage and plant growth
properties were evaluated; and the soil physical, biochemical properties
were analyzed; the effect of soil, plant and microbes on wastewater
contaminant interception, uptake and decomposition were estimated.
2. Material and methods
Column experiments were carried out in a climate-controlled room
in Peking University, China using cylindrical columns to simulate the
wastewater transport in desert soil with a volume of 1.38 × 103 cm3 (4
cm in inner-diameter and 110 cm deep). An elution bottle with constant
pressure was connected to the inlet opening where 10 cm from the top of
the column. Sampling holes with a diameter of 1 cm were arranged
every 10 cm alongside of the column. The bottom of column was ended
with 1 cm diameter opening for drainage. Each column was filled with
dry soil to a dry bulk density of 1.43 g/cm3. Experiment was conducted
from July 2019 to October 2019.
The desert soil was irrigated with 4 types of water: tertiary treated
domestic wastewater (TTW) and secondary treated domestic wastewater
(STW) and raw domestic wastewater untreated (RW) freshwater for
control (tap water, CK). The experiments were divided into two stages:
infiltration with wastewater at first, following planting of Alfalfa. A
complete randomized design was conducted with 4 water treatments, 3
2
Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 208 (2021) 111419
replicates.
2.1. Sampling area and soil properties
The desert soil used for this experiment was taken from Kubuqi
Desert. The Kubuqi Desert is located in Inner Mongolia, China. It is
bordered by the Yellow River to the west, north and east, having an area
of 1.45 × 104 km2 and an altitude of 1200–1400 m above sea level. The
annual precipitation is approximately 150–400 mm, 60%− 70% of
which occurs from June to October. Annual sunshine hours are
3000–3200 h. Annual evaporation is 2100–2700 mm. Strong winds
occur frequently in spring moths (March-June), and the average wind
velocities 3–4 m/s. Soil was randomly collected from surface to a depth
of 1 m, mixed evenly and air dried. The soil is sand, with 94.5% sand,
0.5% silt and 5% clay, with a particle size distribution of 86.3% between
0.05 and 0.2 mm, water content 0.8%, pot holding capacity 15.38% (v/
v), organic matter content 0.02 g/kg, total N 0.012 g/Kg, Olsen P 1 mg/
kg, water soluble P 0.27 mg/kg, mineral N (NH+ 4 0, NO2 0 and NO3 0.04)
– –
mg/kg, pH 8.19, specific gravity 2.64 g/cm3, bulk density 1.47 g/cm3,
porosity 44.25%, seepage velocity 15.37 mm/min, soil aggregates
(≥0.25 mm) 0 g. No fertilizer was applied to the above soil.
2.2. Wastewater properties
The wastewater used in current experiment was sediment effluent of
domestic wastewater collected from wastewater treatment plants
located in Peking University. The choose of wastewater from university
was based on the consideration of simple personnel composition and
source of wastewater inlet in the studied area. They were RW having no
treatment but through primary settling tanks; STW from aeration tank;
TTW was wastewater effluent from outlet pipe and CK with tape water.
The above treated wastewater was collected from membrane bio-reactor
(MBR) process. As the wastewater collected from aeration tank had mass
amount of microbes and metabolites, the suspended solid of STW was
higher than TTW. The heavy metal contained in the above RW was lower
than national standard for drinking water. The detected heavy metal in
current RW was Cu, Zn, As, Cd, Pb with 0.006, 0.004, 0.002, 0.000,
0.000 ug/L, respectively. Basic analysis of the wastewater was listed in
Table S1.
2.3. Experimental design
2.3.1. Wastewater infiltration in desert soil
The infiltration of wastewater in desert soil was simulated in an in­
door experiment with columns. A ponding height of 5 cm above the soil
surface in column was maintained by Mariotte reservoir placed over a
digital balance throughout the experiment. The infiltration depth and
quantity were recorded every 10, 30, 60 s for calculation of cumulative
infiltration and infiltration rate. Then the drainage was collected at 10
min, 20 min, 40 min, 1 h, 2 h, 1 day, 2 day, 3 day, 4 day.
Philips infiltration equation was applied to fit infiltration data,
where sorptivity (S) and constant (A) was obtained by fitting the infil­
tration rate values to the Philips equation in a non-linear regression
function:
I = St1/2 + At (1)
where I represent the cumulative infiltration (cm), S represents the
sorptivity (cm/min1/2), and A represents a constant that is theoretically
equal to the saturated hydraulic conductivity multiplied by a certain
number.
The K(θ) (unsaturated hydraulic conductivity) was obtained when
an infiltration rate of 60 min was recorded.
2.3.2. Planting of Alfalfa
Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) seeds were pre-germinated by putting
C. Liu et al.
seeds on top of wetted paper (humidity at 70%− 75%), and cultured in
dark at 25 ℃. When sprout came out, three germinated seeds were
planted in column soil. One plant with similar size was kept when they
emerged from soil. The plants were irrigated to a 90% pot holding ca­
pacity in each column by drip irrigations every second day. The drip
tubes used had an inner diameter of 3.5 mm, and no clogging was evi­
denced. The top of the columns was equipped with metal-halide lamps
providing extra light for solar radiation. The plant growth condition was
set as 22/18 ℃ day/night temperature, 14:10 h photoperiod and＞
500 µmol/m2/s photosynthetic active radiation. The chlorophyll of the
leaves was measured with Chlorophyll Meter SPAD-502 plus one day
before harvest. Soil samples were sterilely collected when plants were
harvested. The impact of plant growth on infiltration was also measured
with water table maintained at 5 cm above the soil surface in column by
using the elution bottle to provide constant presser.
2.3.3. Harvest
Harvest occurred 72 days after transplanting. Soil samples were
collected from side of soil column with 0 cm, 10 cm, 30 cm, 50 cm,
70 cm, 90 cm at harvest day. The plants leaf area was calculated:
0.83 × length × width (cm) × number of leaves. Total biomass was the
sum of shoot fresh mass and root fresh mass; plants were dried at 60 ◦ C
until constant weight to obtain dry biomass; root properties were
measured in each layer with root diameter and root volume by overflow
of water; root weight density and root length density were calculated:
RDw = W d /vs
RDL = Lr /vs
/
Lr = 4V i πd2i
RDW root weight density (g/cm3); RDL root length density (cm/cm3); Wd
dry root weight (g); vs soil volume (cm3). Lr root length in layer i (cm); Vi
root volume in layer i (cm3); di average root diameter in layer i (cm).
2.4. Measurements, calculations and statistical analyses
2.4.1. Microbial analysis of soil
The soil and water samples that used for counting the number of the
total bacteria and Escherichia coli (E. coli) were analyzed immediately
after sampling (within 12 h). Soil samples were diluted in a sterile vial
with 0.005 M pyrophosphate buffer (pH = 7) for bacterial extraction,
afterwards, the diluted samples were shaken for 1 h to take supernatant
and then the total bacteria were measured by the pour plate method
using Luria–Bertani Agar (LB) while E. coli Tryptone Bile X-glucuronide
Agar (TBX).
The soil samples for microbial community analysis were collected
10 cm from top of the soil columns and were stored at − 20 ◦ C. The
genomic DNA of the samples was extracted and purified using soil DNA
kits (Omega Bio-tek, Norcross, GA, USA). The primers used for microbial
diversity analysis was 338F (5′ -ACTCCTACGGGAGGCAGCAG-3′ ) and
806R (5′ -GGACTACHVGGGTWTCTAAT-3′ ) provided by Illumina
MiSeq. The PCR reactions was with 3 min of denaturation at 95 ◦ C, 27
cycles of 30 s at 95 ◦ C, 30 s for annealing at 55 ◦ C, and 45 s for elon­
gation at 72 ◦ C, and extension for 10 min at 72 ◦ C. The PCR products
were extracted from a 2% agarose gel and purified using the AxyPrep
DNA Gel Extraction Kit (Axygen Biosciences, Union City, CA, USA).
Purified amplicons were paired-end sequenced (2 × 300) on an Illumina
MiSeq platform (Illumina, San Diego, USA) according to the standard
protocols by Majorbio Bio-Pharm Technology Co. Ltd. (Shanghai,
China).
2.4.2. Physical analysis of soil
Water stable soil aggregates bigger than 0.25 mm were separated via
wet-sieving procedure as described by Kemper and Chepil (1965).
Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 208 (2021) 111419
Composite soil samples were pre-soaked for 10 min in the distilled water
and afterwards, a 250 g composite soil sample was put over a nest sieve
of diameters 0.25 mm and get oscillated vertically with 4 cm amplitude
at the rate of 1 oscillation/s for 20 times in water. The wet soil left on
sieve was dried at 65 ℃ to constant weight and weighted. Soil ζ-po­
tential was measured with topsoil of 0–10 cm depth using zeta SIZER
(Malvern Nano-ZS90).
2.4.3. Chemical analysis of soil and water
The NO–3, NO–2 and NH+ 4 were measured at each sampling time by
pooled supernatants after sequential extractions of 1 g of fresh soil
shaken with 1 M KCl for 1 h at 20 ℃ followed by centrifuging for 10 min
at 10,733 g with a spectrophotometer (HACH, DR-5000) with NO–3 at
220 and 275 nm), NO–2 at 540 nm and NH+ 4 at 420 nm (Chinese Envi­
ronment standards HJ/T 346–2007). Before NO–3, NO–2 and NH+ 4 analysis,
all the water samples were filtered by 0.45 µm water membrane. The
filtrates were analyzed for NO–3, NO–2 and NH+ 4 , total organic carbon
(TOC), pH, salinity (soluble salt content), total P (TP) and water soluble
P (WSP) and the data was obtained by averaging through repeated
sampling. TOC was measured with total organic carbon analyzer TOC-V
CPN SHIMADZU. The pH value was measured by pH meter (Hanna
Corporation, Italy) in a 1: 2.5 (w:v) soil to deionized water ratio. Salt
content was measured by oven dry. TP by the persulfate digestion
method with a spectrophotometer at 890 nm after the addition of
vanadate molybdate (Sissingh, 1971). WSP in the soil was measured at
each harvest time in pooled supernatants after two sequential extrac­
(2)
tions of 1 g of fresh soil shaken with 50 mL of deionized water for 1 h at
20 ◦ C followed by centrifuging for 30 min at 10,733 g at 20 ◦ C and was
(3)
analyzed with a spectrophotometer at 890 nm after the addition of
(4) vanadate molybdate (Sissingh, 1971). Soil urease activity was deter­
mined as described by Kandeler and Gerber (1988). Briefly, a fresh soil
sample equivalent to 5.0 g oven-dry weight was added with 2.5 mL of
urea (720 mM) and 20 mL borate buffer (pH 10) and incubated at 37 ◦ C
for 2 h. Then, after adding 50 mL of a mixture of KCl (1 M) and HCl
(0.01 M) solution, the mixed solution was shaken for 30 min (25 ◦ C) at
125 rpm. The suspension was filtered, and the ammonia concentration
in the filtrate was measured photometrically at 690 nm. Urease activity
was expressed as the amount of NH3-N produced per unit mass of soil per
24 h (μg N/g dry soil/ 24 h).
2.4.4. Statistical analysis
Sampling data was statistically compared between treatments by
one-way ANOVA, Tukey test analysis of variance at the significance
level of 0.05 using SAS (9.3). The correlation analysis was done with
CORR procedure in SAS (9.3). The microbial community analysis was
performed using the online platform of Majorbio I-Sanger Cloud
Platform.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Wastewater infiltration with or without plants
The infiltration rates of different water treatments in sand soil grown
with or without plants were shown in Fig. 1. Infiltration is part of the
terrestrial water cycle and it is the process of water penetrating into the
soil profile. This process can be affected by water supply and soil
permeability (Ebel and Moody, 2013) with soil permeability is a factor
being affected by soil texture, structure, water content and mineral
composition. In current experiment, the initial infiltration rates were
differentiated rapidly and unstable in the first 3 min. By irrigating with
either wastewater or tape water, a high infiltration rate was found in
bare soil. By comparing the stable infiltration (by skipping the first
5 min) with a constant water table, the highest infiltration rate was
found in TTW soil, followed by CK, RW and STW (Fig. 1) when no plant
was grown in soil. The lower infiltration rate with STW and RW treat­
ments was attributed to the suspended solid particles in wastewater
3
C. Liu et al. Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 208 (2021) 111419

Fig. 1. Infiltration rates (cm/min) of sand soil subjected to different water treatments (raw wastewater, RW; secondary treated wastewater, STW; tertiary treated
wastewater, TTW; tape water, CK) (values are means).

water. And the largest K(θ) value (which is almost equivalent to the
constant infiltration rate) in TTW (Table 1) showed that the chemical in
wastewater also affected K(θ) during their flow through pores in sand.
As it is known that the hydraulic conductivity correlates to the fluid
density and inversely related to the fluid viscosity (Tindall et al., 1999).
When subjected to salinity water with Na+, cultivated soils tend to
disperse and break down into smaller aggregates, giving rise to a surface
seal and a reduction in infiltration rate through the exchange and
equilibrium processes between the soil soluble and solid thus unstable of
soil aggregates and/or the entrapment of air (Raine et al., 2007). But this
may vary among soils, as the clay content is different. As to sand soil,
where no soil aggregation exists in original soil, the salt facilitated raise
of solution density may contribute the increased infiltration rate in TTW
treatments. Whilst the RW and STW treatments had higher organic
matter content which may contribute to the formation of soil hydro­
phobicity following wastewater irrigation (Wallach et al., 2005). Be­
sides, the infiltration rate tends to decrease due to crust formation on the
surface of sand soil following wastewater irrigation especially in STW
and RW treatments.
The infiltration rate was detected again before harvest of plants. It
showed that plants growth significantly reduced the permeability and
extended the time water efflux from the bottom of soil column from
25–37 min to 37–52 min (Fig. 1), especially with TTW and RW treat­
ments. The stable infiltration rates with those two treatments were
reduced by ca. 40%. Correlation analysis showed that both the time of
water run out of soil column and the decrease of infiltration were
significantly correlated to root biomass with R2 = 0.82 and R2 = 0.72,
respectively. These results indicated that the decrease of stable infil­
tration rate was caused by root growth, which was contrary to what was
normally found in cultivated soil where high density root system in­
crease soil matrix water infiltration capacity via vital channels for water
infiltration by forming macropores and root channel (Liu et al., 2019).
Moreover, the root exudates and their physical contact with soil parti­
cles could cause soil physical, chemical, and biological alterations,
which in turn impact the soil permeability (Bronick and Lal, 2005).
The Philip infiltration parameters and relates statistics were pre­
sented in Table 1. The Philip infiltration model was successfully fitted to
the infiltration data of different water treated sand soil. Growing plants
increased sorptivity compared to soil without plants, except with RW
treatments. For example, the sorptivity of pure water increased from
12.1 to 14.68 cm/min1/2. Sorptivity describes the tendency of the me­
dium to absorb and transmit the solution by capillary action (Hall and
Hoff, 2012), thereby, affecting the infiltration rate of liquid into soil.
Smaller pores hold more water by capillary force (Fredlund and Xing,
1994) comparing to the large pores in sand soil. The cutting off of
capillary force could inhibit salt transporting to surface of soil. Besides,
the increased sorptivity may also imply an increased water holding ca­
pacity after plant growth.
3.2. Analysis of drainage before planting of Alfalfa
Fig. 2 presented the dynamic exudate analysis from soil column

Table 1
The fitting parameters of soil hydraulic properties. A: a constant in Philip equation; K(θ): unsaturated hydraulic conductivity, observed during infiltration process with
different water treatment (tape water, CK; raw wastewater, RW; secondary treated wastewater, STW; tertiary treated wastewater, TTW) in desert soil with or without
plants.
Without plant With plant

Sorptivity (cm/min1/2) A (cm/min) Adj. R2 K (θ) (cm/min) Sorptivity (cm/min1/2) A (cm/min) Adj. R2 K (θ) (cm/min)

CK 12.10 1.16 0.992 1.52 14.68 0.85 0.994 1.43

TTW 7.28 2.14 0.999 1.71 8.97 0.79 0.996 1.08
STW 7.95 1.1 0.993 1.28 8.35 0.71 0.998 0.95
RW 10.5 1.08 0.994 1.43 9.94 0.44 0.997 0.82

4
C. Liu et al. Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 208 (2021) 111419

Fig. 2. NH+4 and NO3 concentration (mg/L), total phosphorus and total organic carbon (TOC) concentration (mg/L), total salt (mg/L) and E. coli (cfu/mL) con­
–

centration in effluent collected from the bottom of soil column that subjected to different water treatments (raw wastewater, RW; secondary treated wastewater,
STW; tertiary treated wastewater, TTW; tape water, CK) treatments (values are means).

during 4 days’ wastewater treatments. As shown in Table S1, initially concentration with initial P level in wastewater, since P has higher
NH+ 4 was the main form of N in RW. Yet, the N form changed from NH4
+
reactivity than N, and binds easily to soil constituents (Frossard et al.,
to NO–3 in TTW, and partially changed to both NH+ 4 and NO3 in secondary
–
2000; Liu et al., 2015, 2017, 2018). The total organic carbon in effluent
treated wastewater (STW). The NO–2 data was not presented, as the NO–2 showed no sign of reaching similar level with initial concentration in
content in all wastewater and effluent was negligible. Both NH+ 4 and wastewater within 4 days’ infiltration (Fig. 2), which was finally only
NO–3 in wastewater were ready to precipitate downward to the bottom about one third of initial level both with RW and STW. The reduction of
soil or groundwater as the sandy soil used here has little colloids and the organic carbon was a result of organic matter accumulation on top layer
transportation of NH+ 4 and NO3 in soil solution is easy. As a result,
–
of soil column (Fig. S1).
groundwater N content in wastewater in irrigated area would be high. All wastewater treatments had similar salinity (Table S1). The sol­
The NH+ 4 content in effluent increased rapidly between 2 h and 24 h, and uble salt flued out easily from soil column, and a rapid raise of salt
eventually reached a similar content with influent of RW and STW concentration was evidenced from the start of the infiltration process. A
(Fig. 2), which indicating that the NH+ 4 in raw wastewater could be constant salt concentration was obtained with most of the treatments
partly intercepted by sand. Whilst, there was no NH+ 4 in effluent in CK within a day (Fig. 2). Due to large E. coli content especially with RW and
and TTW, due to no NH+ 4 input. Differ from NH4 , NO3 from soil column
+ –
STW, E. coli in wastewater could pollute soil and groundwater as it could
effluent decreased rapidly between 10 min and 40 min in all water go down to deep soil with water (Fig. 2).
treatments, and reached a lower NO–3 content within 4 days compared
with STW influent. The intercepted NH+ 4 transformed to NO3 in soil and
–
3.3. Soil interception of wastewater elements after harvest
this part of N can rapidly flow out of soil column with water and give rise
to possible environmental and health problems. And this was also re­
Figs. 3 and Fig. S1 showed soil interception of wastewater elements
ported in previous work by Tran and Zuo et al. (2014, 2018).
after 4 days’ wastewater treatments and 72 days’ plant growth. No NH+ 4
The total P concentration in effluent also increased with time (Fig. 2).
was detected in soil samples as NH+ 4 in soil can easily transformed to
Yet, compared to NH+ 4 , it takes longer time for P to reach a similar
NO–3 with help of microbes. NO–3 showed stepwise decrease from top to

5
C. Liu et al.
Fig. 3. Soil NO–3, water soluble phosphorus total salt concentration (mg/Kg) and pH collected from different depth of soil column that subjected to different water
treatments (raw wastewater, RW; secondary treated wastewater, STW; tertiary treated wastewater, TTW; tape water, CK) (values are means).
50 cm of the soil column in wastewater irrigated soil, e.g. it was
18.5 mg/Kg in the surface layer and 1.9 mg/Kg in the bottom layer in
RW treated soil. TTW and STW treatments had relatively less NO–3
intercepted in top soil compared with RW treatments. Compared with N,
water soluble P also decrease with soil depth with wastewater treated
soil and was concentrated in top soil lays of 0–10 cm. There was also salt
accumulation with wastewater treatments in top soil lays, especially
with RW and STW. Results also indicated that wastewater disposal to
desert sandy soil could result in elevated pH level regardless of the level
of wastewater treated. Increase of soil pH following wastewater or
greywater application has also been demonstrated in previous research
work (Pinto et al., 2010; Siggins et al., 2016).
The biogeochemical activity of microbiota is considered the most
important aspect of soil quality, with implications in soil fertility and
quality. An increased biological activity was normally connected to the
grown number of hot spots (Nannipieri et al., 2003), such as aggregates,
particulate organic matter and root rhizospheres. The mineralization of
soil organic matter is mainly accomplished by hydrolytic enzymes such
as sucrase, urease. Urease is involved in cycling of N as it catalyzes the
release of NH+4 from urea (Caldwell, 2005). As the bare desert soil had no
organic matter content, the total organic carbon was analyzed to
determine accumulation of organic compounds as a result of wastewater
irrigation. With wastewater treatment and plant growth, soil urease and
organic matter showed stepwise decrease with soil depth and was
mainly active in the soil lays of 0–30 cm. RW and STW soil had a higher
urease and organic matter content compared to TTW soil.
The microbiology of soils is an important consideration for waste­
water reuse. Soil microbes connected closely with organic matter
mineralization and are potential indicators of soil health (Yang et al.,
2017). When an increase in the microbial biomass was observed, it may
have been due to the supplying of additional organic C and other nu­
trients by wastewater (Fatta-Kassinos et al., 2011). Moreover, pathogens
in wastewater may survive in soil and potentially compromise public
health. Soil E. coli was measured as a surrogate of pathogen persistence
in the soil. Among all wastewater, only RW irrigated soil intercepted
6
Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 208 (2021) 111419
significant larger amount of E. coli while the total bacteria quantity in
both RW and TTW were large, particularly in the layer of 0–30 cm. This
was in accordance with the significant high E. coli in RW (Table S1).
While the high total bacteria quantity in TTW might be a result of root
growth.
3.4. Plant growth properties
The plant growth properties of biomass, root weight density and
Chlorophyll were shown in Table 2 and Fig. 4. The establish of plant
biomass can increase soil nutrient stocks through plant return and
decomposition. Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) is one of the most important
forage legumes in the world and it is widely planted in northwest China.
It has deep root system and can serve as high-quality feed with high
protein content. The legume growth requires sufficient water and
nutrient for adequate growth, and the wastewater irrigation compensate
this limitation in desert lands. Thus, the planting of Alfalfa may intercept
part of the nutrients in wastewater and improve soil quality and increase
carbon and N pools in arid loess land. The use of wastewater as irrigation
water for resource and energy recovery (e. g. plant biomass) has been
successfully practiced in production of olive trees (Pedrero et al., 2020),
sugar beet, alfalfa, maize, napier grass, sunflower and canola (Shilpi
Table 2
Plant total biomass (g/plant), leaf area (cm2/plant) and Chlorophyll (SPAD) as
affected by water treatments (tape water, CK; raw wastewater, RW; secondary
treated wastewater, STW; tertiary treated wastewater, TTW). Values are means
(n = 3). Significant differences are indicated by letters: Different small letters
within a column indicate significant difference due to irrigation method at
P < 0.05.
Total biomass Leaf area Chlorophyll (SPAD)
CK 12.46d 3.86c 21.82c
TTW 69.02a 102.52a 58.87a
STW 36.24c 17.32bc 37.1b
RW 53.49b 105.54a 61.77a
C. Liu et al.
Fig. 4. Root weight density (mg/cm3) and length density (cm/cm3) alongside soil column that subjected to different water treatments (raw wastewater, RW;
secondary treated wastewater, STW; tertiary treated wastewater, TTW; tape water, CK) (values are means).
et al., 2019) and microalgae (Nagarajan et al., 2020).
As showed in Table 2 and Fig. 4, wastewater reuse significantly
enhanced plant growth, which may largely due to the nutrient contained
in wastewater (Kiziloglu et al., 2008). N and P is the first and second
major nutrient element for plant growth. Thus, the significant high
content of N and P in TTW and RW (Table S1) explained the great plant
growth promotion within these treatments. The biggest total biomass
was with TTW treatments, followed by RW, then STW and CK. The leaf
area and Chlorophyll were similar in TTW and RW treatments and which
were significantly larger than STW and CK. Results indicated that plant
can hardly grow in desert soil, due to its poor nutrition condition; whilst
the wastewater irrigation met the basic plant growth needs. Comparing
with STW plants, both TTW and RW plants grow strongly. Rotting roots
in STW treatments was observed in the layer of active sludge sediment
later in plant growth stage which also kept the roots from growing into
deeper soil layers (Fig. 4).
Plant roots grown down to 90 cm of the soil column in all treatments
after 72 days (Fig. 4). The greatest root weight and length density was
found with TTW, which was ca. 3 times that of RW, 10 times that of STW
and 27 times that of CK. The data suggested that to use wastewater, TTW
might be the best choice as it promoted root growth which may subse­
quently contribute to magnificent desert soil fixation. The tested soil in
current experiment had a low water holding capacity, thus the irrigated
water could easily go down to the bottom of column soil, leading to an
uneven distribution of water. Previous studies have shown that plant
root adapts to drought stress, with not only a big shallow root biomass to
take surface water and also a deeper rooting system to find deep water
(Ward et al., 2013). In current work, root weight and length density was
significantly greater at the 0–20 cm soil layer than the other soil layers
(p < 0.01; Fig. 4) in CK and STW treatments; while the root weight and
length density in RW treatments was great both at 20–40 cm and
80–100 cm; and the root weight and length density in RW treatments
was greatest at 60–100 cm, indicating extensive root growth into a deep
soil layer to take up water with TTW and RW treated plants, even though
a longer term studies are warranted.
3.5. Soil microbial community abundance and diversity after harvest
The microbial sequencing information and community diversity
characteristics of soil irrigated with different wastewater were presented
in Table S2. The composition of microbial communities plays important
role in soil functioning. Almost 80–90% of the microorganisms inhab­
iting soil are on solid surfaces by interacting factor of extracellular
polysaccharides produced by microbial cells. Clearly, the soil used in
current experiment is not a good microhabitat as there is no aggregates
or organic matter or roots in original soil.
7
Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 208 (2021) 111419
The extraction of microbial DNA failed in tape water irrigated sand
soil. Thus, the CK treatment was not included in the following microbial
community analysis. It can be seen that the coverage was close to 100%
(Table S2), suggesting that the sequencing results would be a good
reflection of microbial diversity. The detected sequence number was
also in accordance with total bacteria in Fig. S1. The Alpha diversity
indices of Sobs, Ace and Shannon showed community richness and
community diversity respectively. Largest diversity was found in RW,
then TTW soil, and was smallest in STW soil, indicating a decreasing
trend of OTU (Operational Taxonomic Units) level from RW to TTW and
to STW.
The predominant bacteria at both phylum and genus levels by
taxonomic analysis were shown in Fig. S2. In all wastewater irrigated
soils, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Chloroflexi, Bacteroidetes were
the dominant phyla with Proteobacteria amounted for the largest pro­
portion. Whilst, the most abundant genera in wastewater irrigated soils
were Pseudomonas, Allorhizobium-Neorhizobium-Pararhizobium-Rhizo­
bium, Brevundimonas, Acidovorax, Ellin6055 (Figs. S2 and 5). It also
indicated that STW had relatively low diversity than TTW and RW, as
Pseudomonas, Allorhizobium-Neorhizobium-Pararhizobium-Rhizobium,
Brevundimonas, Acidovorax summed up for 51.1% of total reads. Rhizo­
bium is one of six plant-associated species within family Rhizobiaceae,
and is mostly associated with plant promoting characteristics (Rodri­
guez and Fraga, 1999) and it was found in all wastewater irrigated soils.
Root exudates such as sugars, organic acids, amino acids, mucilage, etc.
are vital driving force in recruiting rhizosphere microbiomes (Qu et al.,
2020). Alfalfa roots is well known that can assemble rhizobium and form
rhizobium-legume symbiosis. The symbiosis plays an important role in
nitrogen fixation, improve plant growth and biocontrol for several plant
diseases (Das et al., 2017). This may explain the existence of Rhizobium
in all soils. As Acidovorax was potentially plant-pathogenic to many
economically important plants, such as rice, oats, corn, millet, sugar­
cane, and foxtail (Brigida et al., 2016), and which may contribute to the
rotting roots in STW treatments and lead to reduced plant growth.
The cluster heatmap with two-dimensional matrix was generated to
analyze the similarities and differences of community at genus level
(Fig. 5). The cluster analysis was conducted on the distance matrix of soil
microbial samples and a hierarchical clustering tree of microorganisms
under different wastewater treatment was demonstrated in Fig. 5 in
order to study the similarities and differences of microbial community
composition. It showed that the TTW and RW soils which had less dif­
ference in total plant biomass had more similarity in microbial com­
munity structure, and clearly distinct from the STW soil. The results of
Figs. S2 and 5 showed that wastewater application altered the bacterial
composition, and was accordance with Guo et al. (2018).
As the original desert soil and tape water had little microbial
C. Liu et al.
Fig. 5. Community cluster heatmap at genus level in soil subjected to different water treatments (raw wastewater, RW; secondary treated wastewater, STW; tertiary
treated wastewater, TTW).
abundance and diversity in current experiment, the changed soil com­
munity may come from wastewater, plant root growth and etc. In
Table S3, a liner regression analysis was done with relative abundances
of bacterial genus and soil physicochemical and plant growth properties.
It revealed that soil pH, NO–3, plant growth, organic matter were the
main environmental predictors controlling bacterial community struc­
ture. On the other way round, the bacterial community structure is a key
factor for nutrient (N) cycling and plant growth, especially the existence
of plant promoting microbes, e.g. Rhizobium. This was indicated by the
strong correlation of plant biomass and Rhizobium (R2 = 0.83, data was
not presented in table). The organic matter in wastewater can be shortly
degraded by microorganisms, and introduce a burst of microbial
booming and in the meantime produce high concentrations of dissolved
organic matter into soil and water (Moran et al., 2000).
3.6. Soil physical properties after harvest
The water stable aggregates bigger than 0.25 mm and zeta (ζ)-po­
tential were shown in Table S4. The original desert soil was sandy soil
with no soil structure. The determined aggregates of CK, TTW, STW and
RW treated soil indicated sign of formation of soil structure with plant
growth and organic matter accumulation. The poor soil structural of
desert sand was mainly due to its extremely low organic matter content,
thus the relative high organic matter content and suspended solids in
STW precipitated on top of soil and contributed the significant large soil
aggregate formation. Besides, plant roots and their exudates can enmesh
and realign soil particles thus result in formation of soil aggregates.
While the improved microbial community in soil may also take impor­
tant role in water retention and aggregates formation, as the production
of extracellular polysaccharide and mycelium by microbes is proved to
be able to adhesion soil particles (Caesar-Tonthat, 2002; Flemming and
Wingender, 2001).
ζ-potential is defined as the electrical potential at the shear plane of
the electric double layer. Changes in the magnitude of the ζ-potential
8
Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 208 (2021) 111419
can lead to instability in colloidal systems which may result in rapid
flocculation of colloids, pore clogging and deposition, following a
possible decrease of infiltration rate. The measurements of ζ-potential
were made to determine electrical potential changes due to wastewater
irrigation as the organic matter and microbes in wastewater can coat
surface of soil particles and which may cause ζ-potential changes of soil
(Elimelech et al., 2000; Zhuang and Yu, 2002). Even though minor
changes were observed to the overall measured ζ-potential of the het­
erogeneous porous sand, a decreased ζ-potential (more negative) was
found with wastewater treatments compared with freshwater treat­
ments. Similar result was also reported by Zhuang and Yu (2002). This
indicated a possible more stable colloids state in wastewater irrigated
sand, and this may also explain the higher infiltration rate in TTW
irrigated soil.
Even though increased organic matter content was evidenced in RW
and STW treated soil in current experiment, no correlation was observed
in ζ-potential and organic matter content. While ζ-potential significantly
corrected to decrease of stable infiltration rate due to plant growth (R2
= 0.88). This may indicate that the plant growth contributed to the
stability of the colloidal system.
The above results indicated that plant and soil can be used as a low-
cost infiltration media to treat wastewater with the help of microbial
activity. Nevertheless, the composition of wastewater can be very
different due to the source of wastewater inlet. Even though, the
personnel composition and source of wastewater inlet in the studied
area is also simple compared with the wastewater from university. Still,
the wastewater from university might be different from desert waste­
water that disposed, since wastewater from university mostly come from
young and healthy people. As a result, wild experiment by using local
wastewater is urgently needed to further confirm the above founding.
4. Conclusions
Results demonstrated that wastewater application induced
C. Liu et al.
significant changes in plant growth and soil physical, bio-chemical
properties. The used desert soil has no aggregate structure. Its porosity
is large and permeability is strong, thus water seepage rate is fast. If the
untreated wastewater is directly discharged into desert soil, it is easy to
pollute soil and groundwater because it facilitates the accumulation of
N, P, salt, E. coli and pH level in top soil layer. However, domestic
wastewater irrigation and its improved plant growth resulted in soil
function restoration which were indicated by decreased infiltration rate;
formation of soil structural; accumulation of organic matter; increased
soil enzyme activity, microbial abundance and diversity. The TTW
containing less pollutants had big promise in circular bioeconomy and
ecosystem restoration referring to desert vegetation recovery and sand
fixation, due to magnificent promotion in root growth. The result of
current experiment also indicated a great promise in using plant and soil
as infiltration media to treat wastewater in rural areas. Further research
is needed to estimate the ecological effect of other contaminants in
domestic wastewater e.g. hormone. Long term experiment and data
collection from the wild desert environment should be warranted before
reuse of wastewater in desert soil.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Caixia Liu, Zhengfang Ye, and Quanlin Zhao conceived the project.
Caixia Liu, Fulai Liu and Mathias N. Andersen contributed to the
experimental design. Caixia Liu performed the experiments. Caixia Liu
and Gongming Wang carried out data analysis. Caixia Liu wrote the
manuscript. All authors edited the manuscript.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgement
We thank Lei Li and Halo Chen for their technical assistance with
laboratory analyses. We thank The National Key Research and Devel­
opment Project of China (No.2019YFC0409202) for funding of the
project.
Appendix A. Supporting information
Supplementary data associated with this article can be found in the
online version at doi:10.1016/j.ecoenv.2020.111419.
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