How does the cladoceran Daphnia pulex affect the fate of Escherichia coli in water?

The faecal indicator Escherichia coli plays a central role in water quality assessment and monitoring. It is therefore essential to understand its fate under various environmental constraints such as predation by bacterivorous zooplankton. Whereas most studies have examined how protozooplankton communities (heterotrophic nanoflagellates and ciliates) affect the fate of E. coli in water, the capacity of metazooplankton to control the faecal indicator remains poorly understood. In this study, we investigated how the common filter-feeding cladoceran, Daphnia pulex, affects the fate of E. coli under different experimental conditions. Daphnia ingested E. coli and increased its loss rates in water, but the latter rates decreased from 1.65 d-1 to 0.62 d-1 after a 1,000-fold reduction in E. coli initial concentrations, due to lower probability of encounter between Daphnia and E. coli. The combined use of culture and PMA qPCR (viability-qPCR) demonstrated that exposure to Daphnia did not result into the formation of viable but non-culturable E. coli cells. In lake water, a significant part of E. coli population loss was associated with matrix-related factors, most likely due to predation by other bacterivorous biota and/or bacterial competition. However, when exposing E. coli to a D. pulex gradient (from 0 to 65 ind.L-1), we observed an increasing impact of Daphnia on E. coli loss rates, which reached 0.47 d-1 in presence of 65 ind.L-1. Our results suggest that the filter-feeder can exert a non-negligible predation pressure on E. coli, especially during seasonal Daphnia population peaks. Similar trials using other Daphnia species as well as stressed E. coli cells will increase our knowledge on the capacity of this widespread zooplankter to control E. coli in freshwater resources. Based on our results, we strongly advocate the use of natural matrices to study these biotic interactions in order to avoid overestimation of Daphnia impact.

Temporal analysis of E. coli, TSS and wastewater micropollutant loads from combined sewer overflows: implications for management.

A combined sewer overflow (CSO) outfall was monitored to assess the impact of temporal mass loads on the appropriateness of treatment options. Instantaneous loads (mass per s) varied by approximately three orders of magnitude during events (n = 9 in spring, summer and the fall) with no significant seasonal variations. The median fraction of total loads discharged with the first 25% of the total volume ranged from 28% (theophylline) to 40% (Total Suspended Solids (TSS)) and loads remained high for the duration of the events. E. coli and TSS loads originated primarily from wastewater (WW) (63% and 75%, respectively). However, a mix of stormwater (SW) and sewer deposit (SD) resuspension contributed from 73 to 95% for the first 50% of the volume discharged of total TSS loads for 2 events. The contribution of SD resuspension was not negligible for Wastewater Micropollutants (WWMPs), especially for carbamazepine. Sustained high loads over the course of CSOs highlight the need to revisit current CSO and SW management strategies that focus on the treatment of early discharge volumes.

Pathogen and indicator variability in a heavily impacted watershed.

Water samples were collected from 36 locations within the Grand River Watershed, in Southwestern Ontario, Canada from July 2002 to December 2003 and were analyzed for total coliforms, fecal coliforms, Escherichia coli, Escherichia coli O157:H7, and thermophilic Campylobacter spp. A subset of samples was also analyzed for Cryptosporidium spp., Giardia spp., culturable human enteric viruses, and Clostridium perfringens. Storm and snowmelt events were sampled at two locations including a drinking water intake. For the majority of the events, the Spearman rank correlation test showed a positive correlation between E. coli levels and turbidity. Peaks in pathogen numbers frequently preceded the peaks in numbers of indicator organisms and turbidity. Pathogen levels sometimes decreased to undetectable levels during an event. As pathogen peaks did not correspond to turbidity and indicator peaks, the correlations were weak. Weak correlations may be the result of differences in the sources of the pathogens, rather than differences in pathogen movement through the environment. Results from this investigation have implications for planning monitoring programs for water quality and for the development of pathogen fate and transport models to be used for source water risk assessment.

Hydrologic modeling of pathogen fate and transport.

A watershed-scale fate and transport model has been developed for Escherichia coli and several waterborne pathogens: Cryptosporidiumspp., Giardiaspp., Campylobacter spp, and E. coli O157:H7. The objectives were to determine the primary sources of pathogenic contamination in a watershed used for drinking water supply and to gain a greater understanding of the factors that most influence their survival and transport. To predict the levels of indicator bacteria and pathogens in surface water, an existing hydrologic model, WATFLOOD, was augmented for pathogen transport and tested on a watershed in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. The pathogen model considered transport as a result of overland flow, subsurface flow to tile drainage systems, and in-stream routing. The model predicted that most microorganisms entering the stream from land-based sources enter the stream from tile drainage systems rather than overland transport. Although the model predicted overland transport to be rare, when it occurred, it corresponded to the highest observed and modeled microbial concentrations. Furthermore, rapid increases in measured E. coli concentrations during storm events suggested that the resuspension of microorganisms from stream sediments may be of equal or greater importance than land-based sources of pathogens.

Estimating potential environmental loadings of Cryptosporidium spp. and Campylobacter spp. from livestock in the Grand River Watershed, Ontario, Canada.

Exposure to waterborne pathogens in recreational or drinking water is a serious public health concern. Thus, it is important to determine the sources of pathogens in a watershed and to quantify their environmental loadings. The natural variability of potentially pathogenic microorganisms in the environment from anthropogenic, natural, and livestock sources is large and has been difficult to quantify. A first step in characterizing the risk of nonpoint source contamination from pathogens of livestock origin is to determine the potential environmental loading based on animal prevalence and fecal shedding intensity. This study developed a probabilistic model for estimating the production of Cryptosporidium spp. and Campylobacter spp. from livestock sources within a watershed. Probability density functions representing daily pathogen production rates from livestock were simulated for the Grand River Watershed in southwestern Ontario. The prevalence of pathogenic microorganisms in animals was modeled as a mixture of beta-distributions with parameters drawn from published studies. Similarly, gamma-distributions were generated to describe animal pathogen shedding intensity. Results demonstrate that although cattle are responsible for the largest amount of manure produced, other domesticated farm animals contribute large numbers of the two pathogenic microorganisms studied. Daily pathogen production rates are highly sensitive to the parameters of the gamma-distributions, illustrating the need for reliable data on animal shedding intensity. The methodology may be used for identifying source terms for pathogen fate and transport modeling and for defining and targeting regions that are most vulnerable to water contamination from pathogenic sources.