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Assessing Risk of E. coli Resuspension from Intertidal Estuarine Sediments: Implications for Water Quality

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 t...

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Autores principales: Wyness, Adam J., Paterson, David M., Rimmer, James E. V., Defew, Emma C., Stutter, Marc I., Avery, Lisa M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6765901/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31491848
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16183255
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author Wyness, Adam J.
Paterson, David M.
Rimmer, James E. V.
Defew, Emma C.
Stutter, Marc I.
Avery, Lisa M.
author_facet Wyness, Adam J.
Paterson, David M.
Rimmer, James E. V.
Defew, Emma C.
Stutter, Marc I.
Avery, Lisa M.
author_sort Wyness, Adam J.
collection PubMed
description 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.
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spelling pubmed-67659012019-09-30 Assessing Risk of E. coli Resuspension from Intertidal Estuarine Sediments: Implications for Water Quality Wyness, Adam J. Paterson, David M. Rimmer, James E. V. Defew, Emma C. Stutter, Marc I. Avery, Lisa M. Int J Environ Res Public Health Article 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. MDPI 2019-09-05 2019-09 /pmc/articles/PMC6765901/ /pubmed/31491848 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16183255 Text en © 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/).
spellingShingle Article
Wyness, Adam J.
Paterson, David M.
Rimmer, James E. V.
Defew, Emma C.
Stutter, Marc I.
Avery, Lisa M.
Assessing Risk of E. coli Resuspension from Intertidal Estuarine Sediments: Implications for Water Quality
title Assessing Risk of E. coli Resuspension from Intertidal Estuarine Sediments: Implications for Water Quality
title_full Assessing Risk of E. coli Resuspension from Intertidal Estuarine Sediments: Implications for Water Quality
title_fullStr Assessing Risk of E. coli Resuspension from Intertidal Estuarine Sediments: Implications for Water Quality
title_full_unstemmed Assessing Risk of E. coli Resuspension from Intertidal Estuarine Sediments: Implications for Water Quality
title_short Assessing Risk of E. coli Resuspension from Intertidal Estuarine Sediments: Implications for Water Quality
title_sort assessing risk of e. coli resuspension from intertidal estuarine sediments: implications for water quality
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6765901/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31491848
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16183255
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