title: Geographic information systems and multivariate analysis to evaluate fecal bacterial pollution in coastal waters of Andaman, India.
abstract: Urbanization of coastal areas in recent years has driven us to consider a new approach for visually delineating sites that are contaminated with fecal bacteria (FB) in the coastal waters of the Andaman Islands in India. Geo-spatial analysis demarcated harbor, settlement, and freshwater/discharge influenced zones as hot spots for FB, while the open sea was demarcated as a cold spot. The land use types, such as developed and agriculture, with more anthropogenic activities increasing the FB counts while open sea showed the least FB. Box whisker plot indicated an increasing FB trend in the coastal waters during monsoon. Furthermore, principal component analysis revealed 67.35%, 78.62% and 70.43% of total variance at Port Blair, Rangat and Aerial bays, respectively. Strong factor loading was observed for depth (0.95), transparency (0.93), dissolved oxygen (0.93) and fecal streptococci (0.85). Distance proximity analysis revealed that fecal contaminations diluted significantly (P < 0.05) at the distance of 2.1 km toward the deeper or open sea water. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of an integrated approach in identifying the sources of fecal contamination and thus helping in better monitoring and management of coastal waters.
authors.affiliation: Andaman and Nicobar Centre for Ocean Science and Technology (ANCOST), ESSO-NIOT, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India, Port Blair, India.
authors.forename: Palaiyaa Sukumaran
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Dheenan
authors.affiliation: Ocean Science and Technology for Islands (OSTI), Earth System Science Organization (ESSO)-National Institute of Ocean Technology (ESSO-NIOT), Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India, Chennai, India. Electronic address: dilipjhaniot@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Dilip Kumar
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Jha
authors.affiliation: Andaman and Nicobar Centre for Ocean Science and Technology (ANCOST), ESSO-NIOT, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India, Port Blair, India.
authors.forename: Apurba Kumar
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Das
authors.affiliation: Andaman and Nicobar Centre for Ocean Science and Technology (ANCOST), ESSO-NIOT, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India, Port Blair, India.
authors.forename: Nambali Valsalan
authors.initials: NV
authors.lastname: Vinithkumar
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Management, School of Environmental Sciences, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, India.
authors.forename: Marimuthu Prashanthi
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Devi
authors.affiliation: Ocean Science and Technology for Islands (OSTI), Earth System Science Organization (ESSO)-National Institute of Ocean Technology (ESSO-NIOT), Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India, Chennai, India.
authors.forename: Ramalingam
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kirubagaran
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D001419:Bacteria / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D061006:Bays / Q000382:microbiology*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology*; D005618:Fresh Water / Q000382:microbiology; D040362:Geographic Information Systems; D007194:India; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D012623:Seawater / Q000382:microbiology; D014507:Urbanization; D014873:Water Pollutants / Q000302:isolation & purification*
chemical_list: D014873:Water Pollutants
keywords: Andaman sea; Fecal indicator bacteria; Geo-spatial analysis; Hot spots; Sea water