title: Source tracking using microbial community fingerprints: Method comparison with hydrodynamic modelling.
abstract: Urban estuaries around the world are experiencing contamination from diffuse and point sources, which increases risks to public health. To mitigate and manage risks posed by elevated levels of contamination in urban waterways, it is critical to identify the primary water sources of contamination within catchments. Source tracking using microbial community fingerprints is one tool that can be used to identify sources. However, results derived from this approach have not yet been evaluated using independent datasets. As such, the key objectives of this investigation were: (1) to identify the major sources of water responsible for bacterial loadings within an urban estuary using microbial source tracking (MST) using microbial communities; and (2) to evaluate this method using a 3-dimensional hydrodynamic model. The Yarra River estuary, which flows through the city of Melbourne in South-East Australia was the focus of this study. We found that the water sources contributing to the bacterial community in the Yarra River estuary varied temporally depending on the estuary's hydrodynamic conditions. The water source apportionment determined using microbial community MST correlated to those determined using a 3-dimensional hydrodynamic model of the transport and mixing of a tracer in the estuary. While there were some discrepancies between the two methods, this investigation demonstrated that MST using bacterial community fingerprints can identify the primary water sources of microorganisms in an estuarine environment. As such, with further optimization and improvements, microbial community MST has the potential to become a powerful tool that could be practically applied in the mitigation of contaminated aquatic systems.
authors.affiliation: Environmental and Public Health Microbiology Laboratory (EPHM Lab), Civil Engineering Department, Monash University, VIC, Australia. Electronic address: david.mccarthy@monash.edu.
authors.forename: D T
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: McCarthy
authors.affiliation: Environmental and Public Health Microbiology Laboratory (EPHM Lab), Civil Engineering Department, Monash University, VIC, Australia.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jovanovic
authors.affiliation: Environmental and Public Health Microbiology Laboratory (EPHM Lab), Civil Engineering Department, Monash University, VIC, Australia. Electronic address: a.lintern@unimelb.edu.au.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lintern
authors.affiliation: Water and Environment Group, BMT WBM Pty Ltd, Spring Hill, QLD, Australia.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Teakle
authors.affiliation: Water and Environment Group, BMT WBM Pty Ltd, Spring Hill, QLD, Australia.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Barnes
authors.affiliation: Environmental and Public Health Microbiology Laboratory (EPHM Lab), Civil Engineering Department, Monash University, VIC, Australia.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Deletic
authors.affiliation: Melbourne Water Corporation, VIC, Australia.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Coleman
authors.affiliation: Melbourne Water Corporation, VIC, Australia.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rooney
authors.affiliation: Melbourne Water Corporation, VIC, Australia.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Prosser
authors.affiliation: Micromon, Department of Microbiology, Monash University, Australia.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Coutts
authors.affiliation: School of Earth & Environment, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia; The Oceans Institute, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia.
authors.forename: M R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Hipsey
authors.affiliation: School of Earth & Environment, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia; The Oceans Institute, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia.
authors.forename: L C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Bruce
authors.affiliation: Environmental and Public Health Microbiology Laboratory (EPHM Lab), Civil Engineering Department, Monash University, VIC, Australia.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Henry
mesh_terms: D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology; D006801:Humans; D057446:Hydrodynamics; D045483:Rivers / Q000382:microbiology; D014871:Water Microbiology
keywords: Community profiling; Faecal source tracking; Microbial source tracking (MST); SourceTracker; Tuflow; Urban stormwater