Analysis of multiple enteric viral targets as sewage markers in coral reefs
Introduction
Sewage and associated nutrients in tropical waters can threaten the oligotrophic conditions necessary for coral reef development and introduce pathogens of both humans and corals (Lapointe, 1997, Patterson et al., 2002, Reynolds et al., 1998). Yet the range of impacts on reefs from sewage and its associated microbes remains unclear and unequivocal methods to determine human fecal contamination are needed. Human enteric viruses are promising conservative markers for the presence of human fecal contamination (sewage) in aquatic environments due to their strong host specificity, inability to replicate outside their host, and persistence relative to traditional fecal indicator bacteria (Fong and Lipp, 2005).
Enteric virus surveys have been used in the Florida Keys and other coastal environments to detect fecal contamination emanating from wastewater disposal systems (i.e., septic tanks, cesspits and injection wells) (e.g., Donaldson et al., 2002, Griffin et al., 1999, Jiang et al., 2001, Noble and Fuhrman, 2001). These viral based approaches have demonstrated susceptibility of near shore, offshore and outlying reefs to wastewater contamination when the traditional fecal indicator bacteria levels suggested ‘no evidence of contamination’ (Lipp and Griffin, 2004).
Despite a growing trend in using enteric viruses as indicators for human waste in water there is no consensus on which virus is optimal as a proxy for human sewage, which may be guided by differences in host range and specificity, persistence of genome or infective virions, prevalence in the host population, shedding rate and period of shedding (Fong and Lipp, 2005).
Here we analyzed coral mucus, which we have previously shown to be a probable matrix for accumulating enteric viruses (Lipp et al., 2002, Lipp and Griffin, 2004), and water column samples from throughout the Florida Keys and Dry Tortugas for the presence of different enteric viruses (enteroviruses, norovirus, hepatitis A virus and adenoviruses) and show that discrete detection patterns exist, which may have bearing on their utility as sewage indicators.
Section snippets
Sample collection
Samples were collected by SCUBA divers as part of the Coral Reef Evaluation and Monitoring Project of the Florida Marine Research Institute in the summers of 2001, 2002 and 2003 (Wheaton et al., 2001, Jaap et al., 2003, Beaver et al., 2003). Over the three years studied, 33 reefs were sampled in the Upper, Middle and Lower Keys and the Dry Tortugas (Fig. 1). Nine reefs were sampled in 2001; 23 were sampled in 2002 and 2003 (Table 1). At each sampling point, corals were identified to species and
Results and discussion
One-hundred coral and water samples were collected over the three-year study. Approximately 74% of the corals sampled belonged to five species: Montastraea annularis (most common, 23% of all samples), Siderastraea sideraea, M. cavernosa, Porites astreoides and Colpophyllia natans (in order of frequency).
Acknowledgements
This work was funded in part by the US Environmental Protection Agency, Special Studies Grant X7-97480103-0, and a subcontract from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Marine Research Institute (Coral Reef Evaluation and Monitoring Project).
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Address: United States Geological Survey, Florida Integrated Science Center, Tallahassee, FL 32310, United States.