Resistance and resilience of removal efficiency and bacterial community structure of gas biofilters exposed to repeated shock loads

► Four biofilters were exposed to repeated substrate pulses of increasing intensity. ► New quantitative indices of resistance and resilience capacity were proposed. ► We highlighted different robustness levels according to the contaminants. ► There was an impact of the perturbation regime at the community level (DGGE). ► Bacterial community structure partially coupled to removal efficiency robustness.