Behavior of tetracycline and sulfamethazine with corresponding resistance genes from swine wastewater in pilot-scale constructed wetlands

• Removal rate of VAs from swine wastewater in CWs of different flow configurations.
• Comparison of VAs removal efficiencies of CWs at different seasonal condition.
• Response of tet genes and sul genes in pilot-scale CWs with different types.

Four pilot-scale constructed wetlands (free water surface, SF; horizontal subsurface flow, HSF; vertical subsurface flows with different water level, VSF-L and VSF-H) were operated to assess their ability to remove sulfamethazine (SMZ) and tetracycline (TC) from wastewaters, and to investigate the abundance level of corresponding resistance genes (sulI, sulII, tetM, tetW and tetO) in the CWs. The results indicated that CWs could significantly reduce the concentration of antibiotics in wastewater, and the mass removal rate range of SMZ and TC were respectively 11%-95% and 85%-95% in the four systems on the basis of hydraulic equilibrium; further relatively high removal rate was observed in VSF with low water level. Seasonal condition had a significant effect on SMZ removal in the CWs (especially SMZ in SF), but TC removal in VSFs were not considered to have statistically significant differences in winter and summer. At the end period, the relative abundances of target genes in the CWs showed obvious increases compared to initial levels, ranging from 2.98 × 10−5 to 1.27 × 10−1 for sul genes and 4.68 × 10−6 to 1.54 × 10−1 for tet genes after treatment, and those abundances showed close relation to both characteristic of wastewater and configuration of CWs.