Occurrence of a human‐associated microbial source tracking marker and its relationship with faecal indicator bacteria in an urban estuary

• DOI: 10.1111/lam.13405
• Publication Date: 2020-10-07T05:36:00Z
• Authors: S. Zeki; A. Aslan; S. Burak; J.B. Rose
• Keywords: Indicator bacteria; Source tracking

One of the main impacts urban sprawl in rapidly growing countries has been contamination coastal environments by waterborne pathogens, posing a critical risk to ecosystem and human health. Microbial source tracking (MST) robust tool identify origin these pathogens globally. This study compared occurrence human‐associated Bacteroides marker (BT‐α) with faecal indicator bacteria (FIB) an estuary (Golden Horn, Istanbul, Turkey). Faecal coliform (culture method), enterococci (both culture qPCR method) concentrations physicochemical variables were BT‐α monthly collected samples for year (n = 108). Enterococci detected positively correlated (r 0·86, P < 0·01) suggesting that can be alternative method monitoring. was positive 30% 0·61 r 0·64 methods respectively, 0·01). Rainfall had moderate correlation all faecal/MST indicators combined sewer overflows also severely impacted estuarine water quality. The high FIB at upper suggested pollution mainly originated from peri‐urban settlements around two creeks entering estuary.