A recent study in Water Research examining microbiomes in water filtration is central to the theme of our Water Biofilms WG, and to EBNet’s ongoing interest in complex microbial ecosystems that prevent or remediate pollution and protect public health.
Prof Cindy Smith, a key figure in the University of Glasgow group of authors, said: “The paper takes a global perspective on all drinking water biofilter studies with datasets available at the time. The results demonstrate that geographical location, through its influence on influent water microbiota and chemistry, is the dominant driver of drinking water biofilter microbiomes; yet common taxa and deterministic assembly processes occur globally, revealing underlying ecological consistency”.
Prof Smith is also a Co-Investigator in the Environmental Biotechnology Innovation Centre (EBIC), where her team is working on biofilms for continuous capture of a range of pollutants in natural water environments (see EBIC themes and clusters).
Microbial ecology of drinking water biofiltration based on 16S rRNA sequencing: A meta-analysis. Cholet, F., Vignola, M., Quinn, D., Ijaz, U.Z., Sloan, W.T. and Smith, C.J., 2025. Water Research, p.123684.