Differences in DNA banding patterns, obtained by ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis (RISA), and nitrification were followed in a moving-bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) receiving municipal landfill leachate. Complete nitrification (>99%) to nitrate was obtained in the two-stage MBBR system with an ammonium load of 1.09 g N-$NH_4/m^2{cdot}d$. Increasing the ammonium load to 2.03 g N-$NH_4/m^2{cdot}d$or more caused a decline in process efficiency to 70-86%. Moreover, at the highest ammonium load (3.76 g N-$NH_4/m^2{cdot}d$), nitrite was the predominant product of nitrification. Community succession was evident in both compartments in response to changes in ammonium load. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) supported by similarity analysis (ANOSIM) showed that microbial biofilm communities differed between compartments. The microbial biofilm was composed mainly of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB), with Nitrosomonas europeae and N. eutropha being most abundant. These results suggest that high ammonium concentrations suit particular AOB strains.