Correction to: Scientific Reports https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-23535-8, published online 29 March 2018

This Article contains an error in the Methods section in the ‘Strain selection’ subsection under the subheading ‘Microalgal strains’,

“While our year-long operation of wastewater-fed open ponds indicated the year-round presence of Chlorella and Scenedesmus at greater dominance levels than most other algal colonizers14,70, Chlorella sp. HS2 and Scenedesmus deserticola JD052 were previously isolated from local wastewater sources.”

should read:

“While our year-long operation of wastewater-fed open ponds indicated the year-round presence of Chlorella and Scenedesmus at greater dominance levels than most other algal colonizers14,70, Chlorella sp. HS2 and Scenedesmus deserticola JD052 were previously isolated from oligo-mesotrophic water bodies.”