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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, August 2006, p. 5537-5546, Vol. 72, No. 8
0099-2240/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.03059-05
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Basin-Wide Analysis of the Dynamics of Fecal Contamination and Fecal Source Identification in Tillamook Bay, Oregon

Orin C. Shanks,1 Christopher Nietch,1 Michael Simonich,2 Melissa Younger,2 Don Reynolds,3 and Katharine G. Field2*

National Risk Management Research Laboratory, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development, Cincinnati, Ohio,1 Department of Microbiology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331,2 Tillamook County Performance Partnership, Garibaldi, Oregon 971183

Received 28 December 2005/ Accepted 9 May 2006

The objectives of this study were to elucidate spatial and temporal dynamics in source-specific Bacteroidales 16S rRNA genetic marker data across a watershed; to compare these dynamics to fecal indicator counts, general measurements of water quality, and climatic forces; and to identify geographic areas of intense exposure to specific sources of contamination. Samples were collected during a 2-year period in the Tillamook basin in Oregon at 30 sites along five river tributaries and in Tillamook Bay. We performed Bacteroidales PCR assays with general, ruminant-source-specific, and human-source-specific primers to identify fecal sources. We determined the Escherichia coli most probable number, temperature, turbidity, and 5-day precipitation. Climate and water quality data collectively supported a rainfall runoff pattern for microbial source input that mirrored the annual precipitation cycle. Fecal sources were statistically linked more closely to ruminants than to humans; there was a 40% greater probability of detecting a ruminant source marker than a human source marker across the basin. On a sample site basis, the addition of fecal source tracking data provided new information linking elevated fecal indicator bacterial loads to specific point and nonpoint sources of fecal pollution in the basin. Inconsistencies in E. coli and host-specific marker trends suggested that the factors that control the quantity of fecal indicators in the water column are different than the factors that influence the presence of Bacteroidales markers at specific times of the year. This may be important if fecal indicator counts are used as a criterion for source loading potential in receiving waters.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Microbiology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331. Phone: (541) 737-1837. Fax: (541) 737-0496. E-mail: kate.field{at}oregonstate.edu.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, August 2006, p. 5537-5546, Vol. 72, No. 8
0099-2240/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.03059-05
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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