Mueller-Spitz, S. R., Great Lakes WATER Institute UW, Milwaukee, USA, smspitz@uwm.edu
McLellan, S. L., Great Lakes WATER Institute UW-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, USA, mclellan@uwm.edu

CHARACTERIZING POLLUTION PLUME DYNAMICS USING CLOSTRIDIUM PERFRINGENS DISTRIBUTION AND MOLECULAR DIVERSITY.

Clostridium perfringens is a common member of the intestinal track of many animals and a long-lived fecal pollution marker due to spore forming capabilities. Particle attached C. perfringens was enumerated in sediments captured at three nearshore locations at varying distances from the Milwaukee harbor. Samples collected within the harbor contained an average of 50000 CFU g sediment^-1. Particles collected ~ 200 m from the harbor had concentrations eight times lower than the harbor. C. perfringens was repeatedly recovered from the other locations, but levels fluctuated drastically, which may be due to the influence of current and wind direction on plume dispersion. This organism was also recovered consistently with increasing distance (>5km) from the harbor in temporary pools of sediments collected by nephaloid sampling. Sediment samples contained diverse populations of C. perfringens with some strains genotypically distinct from those obtained from sewage samples based on 16S rDNA sequence analysis. Our findings suggest C. perfringens may be a useful culturable and molecular indicator to model plume movement in systems were dilution makes it difficult to track other indicators over long-periods of time.

Oral presentation

Presentation is given by student: No
Session #:120
Date: 03-03-2008
Time: 17:15