Assessing risk of E. coli resuspension from intertidal estuarine sediments : implications for water quality
Date
05/09/2019Author
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Abstract
Estuarine sediments are a reservoir for faecal bacteria, such as E. coli, where they reside at greater concentrations and for longer periods than in the overlying water. Faecal bacteria in sediments do not usually pose significant risk to human health until resuspended into the water column, where transmission routes to humans are facilitated. The erosion resistance and corresponding E. coli loading of intertidal estuarine sediments was monitored in two Scottish estuaries to identify sediments that posed a risk of resuspending large amounts of E. coli. In addition, models were constructed in an attempt to identify sediment characteristics leading to higher erosion resistance. Sediments that exhibited low erosion resistance and a high E. coli loading occurred in the upper- and mid-reaches of the estuaries where sediments had higher organic content and smaller particle sizes, and arose predominantly during winter and autumn, with some incidences during summer. Models using sediment characteristics explained 57.2% and 35.7% of sediment shear strength and surface stability variance respectively, with organic matter content and season being important factors for both. However large proportions of the variance remained unexplained. Sediments that posed a risk of resuspending high amounts of faecal bacteria could be characterised by season and sediment type, and this should be considered in the future modelling of bathing water quality.
Citation
Wyness , A J , Paterson , D M , Rimmer , J , Defew , E C , Stuttter , M I & Avery , L M 2019 , ' Assessing risk of E. coli resuspension from intertidal estuarine sediments : implications for water quality ' , International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health , vol. 16 , no. 18 , 3255 . https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16183255
Publication
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1660-4601Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Description
Funding: University of St Andrews, and The James Hutton Institute. DMP received funding from the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland (MASTS), funded by the Scottish Funding Council (grant reference HR09011).Collections
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