Fecal source tracking and creek restoration project

 

Our objectives for this work are to address questions about the sources of bacteria causing positive fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) tests and their association with urbanization, land use, and agricultural practices by examining both the specificity of human and other animal fecal contamination tests and the persistence of these microbes in various waterways. We are utilizing a combination of qPCR-based approaches to find the abundance of certain human, gull, cow, horse and pig-associated fecal microbes in aquatic samples. We are comparing these results to a high-throughput sequencing approach that is able to generate >500,000 bacterial sequences/sample.

Our second project is to understand the microbial ecology of local creeks, and investigate changes in composition and function of microbial communities over time and during restoration processes.

 

Study Site 

 

Delaware coastal sites and Inland Bays; Lake Keowee tributaries (Little Eastatoee Creek), Hunnicut Creek

 

Lab Participants

 

Ian Cummings, Hunter Seiders, Carmen Marie Lado, Rachel Weber, Matthew Mallard, Ludovic Besaury, Keith Thompson

 

Presentations/Papers

 

Weber et al., ASM, 2014, Thompson, Campbell et al., AEM, 2013

 

Funding

 

Delaware Sea Grant (NOAA Award #NA10OAR4170084, Molecular tracking of fecal contamination in Delaware coastal waters), Clemson University and Friends of Lake Keowee Society (FOLKS)