Fecal indicator bacteria levels at a marine beach before, during, and after the COVID-19 shutdown period and associations with decomposing seaweed and human presence.

Autor: Abdool-Ghany AA; Department of Chemical, Environmental, and Materials Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA., Sahwell PJ; Department of Chemical, Environmental, and Materials Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA., Klaus J; Department of Marine Geosciences, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Miami, Key Biscayne, FL, USA., Gidley ML; University of Miami, Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies (CIMAS), Miami, FL, USA; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML), Miami, FL, USA., Sinigalliano CD; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML), Miami, FL, USA., Solo-Gabriele HM; Department of Chemical, Environmental, and Materials Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA. Electronic address: hmsolo@miami.edu.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: The Science of the total environment [Sci Total Environ] 2022 Dec 10; Vol. 851 (Pt 2), pp. 158349. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Aug 27.
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.158349
Abstrakt: Studies are limited that evaluate seaweed as a source of bacteria to beach waters. The objective of the current study was to evaluate whether seaweed, along with humans and other animals, could be the cause of beach advisories due to elevated levels of enterococci. The monitoring period occurred a year prior to and through the COVID-19 beach shutdown period, which provided a unique opportunity to evaluate bacteria levels during prolonged periods without recreational activity. Samples of water, sediment, and seaweed were measured for enterococci by culture and qPCR, in addition to microbial source tracking by qPCR of fecal bacteria markers from humans, dogs, and birds. During periods of elevated enterococci levels in water, these analyses were supplemented by chemical source tracking of human-associated excretion markers (caffeine, sucralose, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, and naproxen). Results show that enterococci with elevated levels of human fecal markers persist in the seaweed and sediment and are the likely contributor to elevated levels of bacteria to the nearshore waters. During the shutdown period the elevated levels of enterococci in the sediment were isolated to the seaweed stranding areas. During periods when the beaches were open, enterococci were distributed more uniformly in sediment across the supratidal and intertidal zones. It is hypothesized from this study that human foot traffic may be responsible for the spread of enterococci throughout these areas. Overall, this study found high levels of enterococci in decomposing seaweed supporting the hypothesis that decomposing seaweed provides an additional substrate for enterococci to grow.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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