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Preliminary study of microbiological parameters in eight inland recreational waters
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
letters in applied microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.698
H-Index - 110
eISSN - 1472-765X
pISSN - 0266-8254
DOI - 10.1111/j.1472-765x.1995.tb01057.x
Subject(s) - fecal coliform , water quality , indicator organism , indicator bacteria , biology , veterinary medicine , coliform bacteria , bacteria , escherichia coli , environmental science , zoology , microbiology and biotechnology , ecology , medicine , genetics , biochemistry , gene
A pilot survey of the counts of total coliform bacteria, thermotolerant coliform bacteria, Escherichia coli and faecal streptococci was carried out at eight inland recreational waters at weekly intervals during July 1991. The aims were to assess the feasibility of determining candidate indicators of recreational water quality and to assess the possible scale of variability of these parameters. The numbers of total coliforms were difficult to determine reliably because of interference from the background bacterial flora. There was a strong correlation between thermotolerant coliforms and E. coli and faecal streptococci. The average counts of the indicator organisms varied between and within the eight recreational waters by up to 10000‐fold. The greatest variation was between the eight recreational waters. At any one water, the greatest source of variation was time but there was substantial variation between sample points at one time. Counts in samples collected 1 m apart exhibited greater than random variation. Counts from surface samples tended to be higher than those at 30 cm or 100 cm depth. The proportion of thermotolerant coliforms confirmed to be E. coli varied from water to water between 60% and 96%.