Southern California Coastal Water Research Project, 3535 Harbor Boulevard, Suite 110, Costa Mesa, California 92626, United States.
Environ Sci Technol. 2011 Sep 1;45(17):7195-201. doi: 10.1021/es201118r. Epub 2011 Aug 16.
High fecal indicator bacterial (FIB) concentrations signal urban coastal water quality impairments that can threaten public health. However, FIB (total and fecal coliform plus Enterococcus sp.) concentrations are not specific to human waste, and thus, microbial source tracking (MST) is employed to assess public health risks and remediation alternatives. Currently, water quality diagnosis requires several simultaneous MST assays. Relatively unexplored is a community analysis approach for MST where the overall microbial community composition is compared, through multivariate analysis, to link sources and sinks of microbial pollution. In this research, an urban coastal creek and drain sampling transect, previously diagnosed as human-waste-contaminated, were evaluated for bacterial community composition relative to fecal sources; a laboratory spiking study was also performed to assess method sensitivity and specificity. Multivariate statistical analysis of community profiles clearly distinguished different fecal sources, indicated a high sensitivity for sewage spikes, and confirmed creek contamination sources. This work demonstrates that molecular microbial community analysis combined with appropriate multivariate statistical analyses is an effective addition to the MST tool box.
高粪便指示细菌（FIB）浓度表明城市沿海水质受损，可能威胁公众健康。然而，FIB（总大肠菌群和粪肠球菌加上肠球菌属）浓度并不仅限于人类粪便，因此采用微生物源追踪（MST）来评估公共健康风险和修复替代方案。目前，水质诊断需要同时进行多项 MST 检测。相对而言，一种 MST 的群落分析方法还没有得到充分的探索，该方法通过多元分析比较微生物群落的整体组成，将微生物污染的来源和汇联系起来。在这项研究中，对先前被诊断为受人类粪便污染的城市沿海小溪和排水渠采样进行了评估，以确定细菌群落组成与粪便来源的关系；还进行了实验室加标研究，以评估方法的灵敏度和特异性。群落谱的多元统计分析清楚地区分了不同的粪便来源，表明对污水加标具有很高的灵敏度，并证实了小溪的污染来源。这项工作表明，分子微生物群落分析与适当的多元统计分析相结合，是 MST 工具包的有效补充。
