Abstract:In order to investigate the variation of sludge nitrification activity before and after microbulking with low dissolved oxygen(DO), with mean DO value of 0.6mg/L-0.9 mg/L,the sequence batch reactor (SBR) was employed to test the oxygen consumption velocity curves before and after microbulking. The results showed that COD removal ability increased, whereas the ammonia nitrogen removal effect was decreased with microbulking of sludge. The oxygen consumption velocity curves before and after microbulking showed that the total activity of activated sludge was 67.72 mgO2/gVSS·h before microbulking, of which nitrification activity was 43.12 mgO2/gVSS·h, that is, 63.67% of the total activity. And the total activity of activated sludge was 90.49 mgO2/gVSS·h after microbulking, of which nitrification activity was 23.98 mgO2/gVSS·h, that is, 26.51% of the total activity. The low DO value was the limited substrates for microorganism growth. When activated sludge was in the state of microbulking, the filamentous bacteria were the dominant bacteria, whereas the nitrification bacteria were subordinate. Thus the total nitrification activity of activated sludge decreased.