Research Group Environmental Microbiology and Molecular Ecology, Division Gene Technology and Applied Biochemistry, Institute of Chemical Engineering, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria.
Environ Sci Technol. 2011 May 1;45(9):4038-45. doi: 10.1021/es103659s. Epub 2011 Apr 5.
Water resource management must strive to link catchment information with water quality monitoring. The present study attempted this for the field of microbial fecal source tracking (MST). A fecal pollution source profile based on catchment data (e.g., prevalence of fecal sources) was used to formulate a hypothesis about the dominant sources of pollution in an Austrian mountainous karst spring catchment. This allowed a statistical definition of methodical requirements necessary for an informed choice of MST methods. The hypothesis was tested in a 17-month investigation of spring water quality. The study followed a nested sampling design in order to cover the hydrological and pollution dynamics of the spring and to assess effects such as differential persistence between parameters. Genetic markers for the potential fecal sources as well as microbiological, hydrological, and chemo-physical parameters were measured. The hypothesis that ruminant animals were the dominant sources of fecal pollution in the catchment was clearly confirmed. It was also shown that the concentration of ruminant markers in feces was equally distributed in different ruminant source groups. The developed approach provides a tool for careful decision-making in MST study design and might be applied on various types of catchments and pollution situations.
水资源管理必须努力将集水区信息与水质监测联系起来。本研究试图在微生物粪便源追踪（MST）领域实现这一目标。基于集水区数据（例如，粪便源的流行程度）的粪便污染源特征用于假设奥地利山区岩溶泉集水区中主要的污染来源。这使得可以统计定义明智选择 MST 方法所需的方法要求。该假设在对泉水水质进行的 17 个月调查中得到了检验。该研究采用嵌套采样设计，以覆盖泉水的水文和污染动态，并评估参数之间差异持久性等影响。测量了潜在粪便源的遗传标记以及微生物学、水文学和化学物理参数。集水区中反刍动物是粪便污染主要来源的假设得到了明确证实。还表明，粪便中反刍动物标记物的浓度在不同的反刍动物源群中均匀分布。所开发的方法为 MST 研究设计中的谨慎决策提供了工具，并且可以应用于各种类型的集水区和污染情况。
