Enhancement of rural domestic sewage treatment performance, and assessment of microbial community diversity and structure using tower vermifiltration

► Three-stage vermifiltration construction enhances pollutant removal efficiency. ► Increasing DO concentration in effluents at each vermifiltration stage. ► Phosphorus quality contents noticeably increase in soils of every filter bed. ► Microbial community changes with different media and time. ► The dominant microbial compositions belong to uncertain bacterium and Bacilli.