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Decay of sewage-associated bacterial communities in fresh and marine environmental waters and sediment

  • Environmental biotechnology
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Abstract

Understanding the microbial quality of recreational waters is critical to effectively managing human health risks. In recent years, the development of new molecular methods has provided scientists with alternatives to the use of culture-based fecal indicator methods for investigating sewage contamination in recreational waters. Before these methods can be formalized into guidelines, however, we must investigate their utility, including strengths and weaknesses in different environmental media. In this study, we investigated the decay of sewage-associated bacterial communities in water and sediment from three recreational areas in Southeast Queensland, Australia. Outdoor mesocosms with water and sediment samples from two marine and one freshwater sites were inoculated with untreated sewage and sampled on days 0, 1, 4, 8, 14, 28, and 50. Amplicon sequencing was performed on the DNA extracted from water and sediment samples, and SourceTracker was used to determine the decay of sewage-associated bacterial communities and how they change following a contamination event. No sewage-associated operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were detected in water and sediment samples after day 4; however, the bacterial communities remained changed from their background measures, prior to sewage amendment. Following untreated sewage inoculation, the mesocosm that had the most diverse starting bacterial community recovered to about 60% of its initial community composition, whereas the least diverse bacterial community only recovered to about 30% of its initial community composition. This suggests that a more diverse bacterial community may play an important role in water quality outcomes after sewage contamination events. Further investigation into potential links between bacterial communities and measures of fecal indicators, pathogens, and microbial source tracking (MST) markers is warranted and may provide insight for recreational water decision-makers.

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Acknowledgements

Our thanks to CSIRO Land and Water for funding this strategic project. Sequence processing and analyses were done using the resources of the Minnesota Supercomputing Institute.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CSIRO Land and Water, Ecosciences Precinct, 41 Boggo Road, Dutton Park, QLD, 4102, Australia

    Warish Ahmed & David Beale

  2. Biotechnology Institute, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, 55108, USA

    Christopher Staley, Thomas Kaiser & Michael J. Sadowsky

  3. Department of Surgery, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA

    Christopher Staley & Thomas Kaiser

  4. School of Medicine, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia

    Sonya Kozak

  5. CSIRO Land and Water, Lucas Heights, NSW, 2234, Australia

    Stuart Simpson

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  1. Warish Ahmed
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  2. Christopher Staley
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  4. Michael J. Sadowsky
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  6. David Beale
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  7. Stuart Simpson
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Correspondence to Warish Ahmed.

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Ahmed, W., Staley, C., Kaiser, T. et al. Decay of sewage-associated bacterial communities in fresh and marine environmental waters and sediment. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 102, 7159–7170 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-018-9112-4

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