title: Physicochemical parameters aid microbial community? A case study from marine recreational beaches, Southern India.
abstract: A total of 176 (water and sediment) samples from 22 stations belonging to four different (urban, semi-urban, rural, and holy places) human habitations of Tamil Nadu beaches were collected and analyzed for physiochemical and microbial parameters during 2008-2009. Bacterial counts were two- to tenfold higher in sediments than in water due to strong bacterial aggregations by dynamic flocculation and rich organic content. The elevated bacterial communities during the monsoon explain rainfalls and several other wastes from inlands. Coliform counts drastically increased at holy and urban places due to pilgrimage and other ritual activities. Higher values of the pollution index (PI) ratio (>1) reveals, human fecal pollutions affect the water quality. The averaged PI ratio shows a substantial higher microbial contamination in holy places than in urban areas and the order of decreasing PI ratios observed were: holy places > urban areas > semi-urban areas > rural areas. Correlation and factor analysis proves microbial communities were not related to physicochemical parameters. Principal component analysis indicates 55.32 % of the total variance resulted from human/animal fecal matters and sewage contaminants whereas 19.95 % were related to organic contents and waste materials from the rivers. More than 80 % of the samples showed a higher fecal coliform and Streptococci by crossing the World Health Organization's permissible limits.
authors.affiliation: Department of Marine Science, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, 620024, Tamil Nadu, India.
authors.forename: Sivanandham
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vignesh
authors.forename: Hans-Uwe
authors.initials: HU
authors.lastname: Dahms
authors.forename: Kunnampuram Varghese
authors.initials: KV
authors.lastname: Emmanuel
authors.forename: Murugaiah Santhosh
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Gokul
authors.forename: Krishnan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Muthukumar
authors.forename: Bong-Rae
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Rathinam Arthur
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: James
mesh_terms: D058491:Bacterial Load; D001493:Bathing Beaches / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D012623:Seawater / Q000382:microbiology; D012722:Sewage / Q000032:analysis / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014871:Water Microbiology; D014876:Water Pollution / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
chemical_list: D012722:Sewage