Occurrence of Traditional and Alternative Fecal Indicators in Tropical Urban Environments under Different Land Use Patterns

• Published in: Applied and environmental microbiology Vol. 84; no. 14; p. e00287-18
• Main Authors: Saeidi, Nazanin, Gu, Xiaoqiong, Tran, Ngoc Han, Goh, Shin Giek, Kitajima, Masaaki, Kushmaro, Ariel, Schmitz, Bradley William, Gin, Karina Yew-Hoong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Society for Microbiology 15-07-2018
• Subjects: Anthropogenic factors; Catchments; Contamination; Correlation; E coli; Environmental monitoring; Fecal coliforms; Feces; Freshwater environments; Human influences; Indicators; Land use; Microbiology; Microorganisms; Organic chemistry; Pollution sources; Polymerase chain reaction; Public and Environmental Health Microbiology; Regression analysis; Sewage; Tracers; Urban areas; Urban environments; Viruses; Water pollution; Water quality; freshwater environments; land use; fecal indicators; chemical tracers; regression models
• ISSN: 0099-2240; 1098-5336
• DOI: 10.1128/aem.00287-18

This study evaluated the geospatial distribution of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) (i.e.,
,
spp.) and the alternative fecal indicator pepper mild mottle virus (PMMoV) in tropical freshwater environments under different land use patterns. Results show that the occurrence and concentration of microbial fecal indicators were higher for urban than for parkland-dominated areas, consistent with land use weightage. Significant positive correlations with traditional FIB indicate that PMMoV is a suitable indicator of fecal contamination in tropical catchments waters (0.549 ≤ rho ≤ 0.612;
< 0.01). PMMoV exhibited a strong significant correlation with land use weightage (rho = 0.728;
< 0.01) compared to traditional FIB (rho = 0.583;
< 0.01). In addition, chemical tracers were also added to evaluate the potential relationships with microbial fecal indicators. The relationships between diverse variables (e.g., environmental parameters, land use coverage, and chemical tracers) and the occurrence of FIB and PMMoV were evaluated. By using stepwise multiple linear regression (MLR), the empirical experimental models substantiate the impact of land use patterns and anthropogenic activities on microbial water quality, and the output results of the empirical models may be able to predict the sources and transportation of human fecal pollution or sewage contamination. In addition, the high correlation between PMMoV data obtained from quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) and viral metagenomics data supports the possibility of using viral metagenomics to relatively quantify specific microbial indicators for monitoring microbial water quality (0.588 ≤ rho ≤ 0.879;
< 0.05).
The results of this study may support the hypothesis of using PMMoV as an alternative indicator of human fecal contamination in tropical surface waters from the perspective of land use patterns. The predictive result of the occurrence of human fecal indicators with high accuracy may reflect the source and transportation of human fecal pollution, which are directly related to the risk to human health, and thereafter, steps can be taken to mitigate these risks.