Influence of Land Use, Nutrients, and Geography on Microbial Communities and Fecal Indicator Abundance at Lake Michigan Beaches.

ABSTRACT: Microbial communities within beach sand play a key role in nutrient cycling and are important to the nearshore ecosystem function. Escherichia coli and enterococci, two common indicators of fecal pollution, have been shown to persist in the beach sand, but little is known about how microbial community assemblages are related to these fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) reservoirs. We examined eight beaches across a geographic gradient and range of land use types and characterized the indigenous community structure in the water and the backshore, berm, and submerged sands. FIB were found at similar levels in sand at beaches adjacent to urban, forested, and agricultural land and in both the berm and backshore. However, there were striking differences in the berm and backshore microbial communitie

SUBMITTER: Cloutier DD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4495187 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature