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Interactions between chemical and environmental factors and bacterial community composition in a Great Lakes watershed
Author(s) -
Cooper Carolyn,
DeLoach Idgena,
McMorris John,
Slater Adam,
Brokus Sarah,
Wade Randall,
Best Aaron,
Krueger Brent,
Pikaart Michael
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.2020.34.s1.04072
Subject(s) - tributary , watershed , environmental science , water quality , fecal coliform , streams , hydrology (agriculture) , total dissolved solids , nutrient , total suspended solids , indicator bacteria , microbial population biology , urbanization , ecology , geography , chemical oxygen demand , biology , environmental engineering , bacteria , computer network , cartography , geotechnical engineering , genetics , machine learning , wastewater , computer science , engineering
Urbanization and agricultural activity have degraded the water quality of the Great Lakes and their tributaries. These impacts include nutrient and fecal coliform loading and high sediment levels. In this presentation, we report on three years of continuous weekly monitoring of the Macatawa watershed in Ottawa and Allegan Counties, Michigan, a drowned river mouth entering Lake Michigan. Five lake locations and seven stream sites have been analyzed for microbiological content by community 16S rRNA sequencing, fecal indicator bacteria presence, and Escherichia coli whole‐genome sequencing. Along with these biological indicators, we profile chemical and physical parameters including dissolved oxygen, nutrients, temperature, and pH. We find continued high phosphorus, total suspended solids, and E. coli levels, exceeding total maximum daily load targets, or other benchmarks, for the watershed. Patterns in microbial communities show variation influenced by season and geographic location; for example, total E. coli increases in the stream tributaries in summer but decreases in the lake fed by those streams relative to winter. Furthermore, overall diversity of microbial communities increases in late fall and winter. These data provide a baseline for monitoring remediation efforts in the Macatawa Watershed. We suggest these will serve as a comparison for hypereutrophic watersheds around the nation and to aid decisions about remediations and public access to these recreational waters. Support or Funding Information NSF RUI 1616737