Understanding the temporal dynamics of multi-species biofilms in Drinking Water Distribution Systems (DWDS) is essential to ensure safe, high quality water reaches consumers after it passes through these high surface area reactors. This research studied the succession characteristics of fungal and bacterial communities under controlled environmental conditions fully representative of operational DWDS.

Microbial communities were observed to increase in complexity after one month of biofilm development but they did not reach stability after three months. Changes in cell numbers were faster at the start of biofilm formation and tended to decrease over time, despite the continuing changes in bacterial community composition. Fungal diversity was markedly less than bacterial diversity and had a lag in responding to temporal dynamics. A core-mixed community of bacteria including Pseudomonas, Massillia and Sphingomonas and the fungi Acremonium and Neocosmopora were present constantly and consistently in the biofilms over time and conditions studied.

Monitoring and managing biofilms and such ubiquitous core microbial communities are key control strategies to ensuring the delivery of safe drinking water via the current ageing DWDS infrastructure.

了解饮用水分配系统（DWDS）中多种生物膜的时间动态对于确保安全，高质量的水经过这些高表面积反应器后到达消费者至关重要。这项研究研究了在可控制的环境条件下真菌和细菌群落的演替特征，这些演替充分代表了可操作的DWDS。

观察到生物膜形成一个月后，微生物群落的复杂性增加了，但三个月后却没有达到稳定。尽管细菌群落组成不断变化，但在生物膜形成开始时细胞数量的变化更快，并且随着时间的推移趋于减少。真菌多样性明显少于细菌多样性，并且对时间动态的响应滞后。细菌，包括的核心混合社区假单胞菌，Massillia和鞘氨醇单和真菌枝顶孢和Neocosmopora存在不断和一致地在所研究的生物膜随着时间的推移和条件。

监控和管理生物膜以及无处不在的核心微生物群落是确保通过当前老化的DWDS基础设施提供安全饮用水的关键控制策略。