Open AccessIndicator organisms for estuarine and marine waters
Author(s) -
Elliot Elisa L,
Colwell Rita R
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
fems microbiology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.899
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1574-6968
pISSN - 0378-1097
DOI - 10.1111/j.1574-6968.1985.tb01183.x
Subject(s) - organism , indicator organism , estuary , environmental science , flora (microbiology) , ecology , biology , environmental engineering , bacteria , paleontology , genetics
The use of indicator organisms for estuarine and coastal waters has been reviewed. The natural flora of the environment must be considered in selecting an indicator organism, but, more importantly, recent work which shows a viable but non‐recoverable stage of pathogens entering the marine environment demonstrates that the conventional detection of indicator microorganisms is misleading, if not inaccurate. Results suggest that the newly developed epifluorescent/immunofluorescent direct detection of pathogens in the environment may be the most reliable method for determining public health hazards in marine and estuarine waters.