Open AccessMicrobial Source Tracking in the Love Creek Watershed, Delaware (USA)
Author(s) -
Christopher R. Main,
Robin M. Tyler,
Sergio Huerta
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
delaware journal of public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2639-6378
DOI - 10.32481/djph.2021.01.006
Subject(s) - watershed , bay , source tracking , wildlife , fecal coliform , tributary , environmental science , feces , recreation , contamination , geography , ecology , biology , water quality , archaeology , cartography , machine learning , computer science , world wide web
Fecal contamination of waterways in Delaware pose an ongoing problem for environmental and public health. For monitoring efforts, Enterococcus has been widely adopted by the state to indicate the presence of fecal matter from warm-blooded animals and to establish Primary and Secondary Contact Recreation criteria. In this study, we examined sites within the Love Creek watershed, a tributary of the Rehoboth bay, using next-generation sequencing and SourceTracker to determine sources of potential fecal contamination and compared to bacterial communities to chemical and nutrient concentrations. Microbial community from fecal samples of ten different types of animals and one human sample were used to generate a fecal library for community-based microbial source tracking. Orthophosphate and total dissolved solids were among the major factors associated with community composition. SourceTracker analysis of the monthly samples from the Love Creek watershed indicated the majority of the microbial community were attributed to "unknown" sources, i.e. wildlife. Those that attribute to known sources were primarily domestic animals, i.e. cat and dog. These results suggest that at the state level these methods are capable of giving the start for source tracking as a means to understanding bacterial contamination.