Traversetti Lorenzo, Losito Francesca, Arienzo Alyexandra, Stalio Ottavia, Antonini Giovanni, Scalici Massimiliano
Department of Sciences, University Roma Tre, Rome, Italy.
INBB Interuniversity Consortium of Structural and Systems Biology, Rome, Italy.
PLoS One. 2017 Sep 25;12(9):e0185156. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0185156. eCollection 2017.
Running water habitats are among the most altered aquatic systems by human activities driving an increase in the organic components and the associated bacterial load as well. To contribute in improving the monitoring activities in running waters, here we tested the validity of the new Micro Biological Survey (MBS) method to specifically assess the bacterial load in running waters focusing on Total Viable Counts (at 22°C and 37°C) and Escherichia coli (at 44°C) in order to propose a new prognostic tool for watercourses. MBS method is an alternative colorimetric method for counting bacterial load in water and food samples that is easy to use and leads to a reliable and simple interpretation of results, being also faster and less expensive than traditional methods. Then, we compared MBS with the traditionally used reference method for the bacterial load, and with the most used biotic index for Italian watercourses based on the benthic invertebrates: the Extended Biotic Index (EBI). The last comparison was performed to validate the use of MBS in biomonitoring activities since the benthic invertebrate multi-species assemblage (and then EBI) alter own structure mainly depending on the organic component variation. During the first part of the study, the assessment of both linearity (regressions among bacterial concentrations) and accuracy (significant correlation between a measured value and a value used as reference) confirmed the validity of the MBS method. Second, the linear regressions between the three investigated microbial parameters vs. both physical-chemical descriptors and EBI, revealed the usefulness of MBS as a valid tool for routine microbiological analyses involved in rapid and easy field monitoring activities. This represents the first attempt to evaluate the river microbial status by exploiting the innovative MBS on running waters to propose it as new valuable monitoring tool in the biomonitoring field.
流水生境是受人类活动影响最大的水生系统之一，人类活动导致有机成分增加，相关细菌负荷也随之上升。为了有助于改进流水监测活动，我们在此测试了新的微生物调查（MBS）方法的有效性，该方法专门用于评估流水的细菌负荷，重点关注总活菌数（22°C和37°C）和大肠杆菌（44°C），以便为水道提出一种新的预后工具。MBS方法是一种用于计数水和食品样本中细菌负荷的比色法替代方法，易于使用，结果解释可靠且简单，而且比传统方法更快、成本更低。然后，我们将MBS与传统使用的细菌负荷参考方法以及基于底栖无脊椎动物的意大利水道最常用生物指数：扩展生物指数（EBI）进行了比较。进行最后一项比较是为了验证MBS在生物监测活动中的应用，因为底栖无脊椎动物多物种组合（进而EBI）主要根据有机成分变化改变自身结构。在研究的第一部分，对线性度（细菌浓度之间的回归）和准确度（测量值与用作参考的值之间的显著相关性）的评估证实了MBS方法的有效性。其次，三个研究微生物参数与理化描述符和EBI之间的线性回归，揭示了MBS作为快速简便的现场监测活动中常规微生物分析有效工具的实用性。这是首次尝试通过利用创新的MBS对流水进行评估来提出河流微生物状况，将其作为生物监测领域新的有价值的监测工具。
