The effect of water treatment unit processes on cyanobacterial trichome integrity.

Many toxic and/or noxious cyanobacteria appear in nature with a filamentous, stacked cell arrangement called trichomes. Although water treatment can be optimized to keep cyanobacterial cells intact and to avoid the release of toxic and/or noxious compounds, many physical and chemical stresses encountered during the treatment process may result in trichome truncation, decreasing treatment efficiency by allowing single cells or short trichomes to reach the product water. This makes it possible for harmful/noxious compounds as well as organic matter to enter the distribution system. Investigations in a pilot and three full-scale water treatment plants were carried out in order to elucidate the degree of trichome truncation across different unit processes. It was found that genera (Pseudanabaena, Planktolyngbya) with short trichomes ( < 10–12 cells per trichome), are hardly affected by the unit processes (loss of one to four cells respectively), while genera (Planktothrix, Geitlerinema, Dolichospermum) with longer trichomes (30+ cells per trichome) suffer from high degrees of truncation (up to 63, 30, and 56 cells per trichome respectively). The presence of a rigid sheath and/or mucilaginous layer appears to offer some protection from truncation. It was observed that certain unit processes alter the sensitivity or resilience of trichomes to disruption by physical stress. Some genera (Planktothrix, Geitlerinema) were sensitive to pre-oxidation, making them more susceptible to shear stress, while Dolichospermum sp. appears more robust after pre-oxidation. While the potential of toxicogenic genera breaking through into the product water is a real danger, in the current study no toxicogenic cyanobacteria were observed. This work stresses the need for plant operators to study the incoming cyanobacterial composition in the raw water in order to adjust treatment parameters and thus limit the potential of toxic/noxious compound breakthrough

Hazardous cyanobacteria integrity response to velocity gradient and powdered activated carbon in water treatment plants.

Although some studies have investigated the impact caused by chemicals used on water treatment (coagulants and oxidants) on cyanobacteria integrity, the isolated effect of shear stress during coagulation is still not fully understood. This study evaluated the impact of different velocity gradients, mixing times, and the addition of powdered activated carbon (PAC) on the integrity of Microcystis aeruginosa, Raphidiopsis raciborskii, and Dolichospermum circinale, known producers of toxin and taste and odor (T&O) compounds. No association was found between R. raciborskii cell lysis and velocity gradient, with or without PAC, demonstrating the high resilience of this taxon to shear stress. In contrast, an association was found for M. aeruginosa at the highest velocity gradient evaluated (1000 s-1) and for D. circinale above the lowest velocity gradient studied (600 s-1). After PAC addition, there was a reduction in the chances of finding M. aeruginosa intact cells above velocity gradient 800 s-1 at 45 s, while D. circinale show cell lysis in all the scenarios expect at 600 s-1 and 10 s of agitation. The additional impact of PAC on cell lysis may lead to more release of metabolites and shows the need to adjust the hydraulic conditions in the rapid mixing stage, especially when more “fragile” cyanobacteria are present. Neither cyanobacterial cell size nor morphology was shown to be relevant to shear stress sensitivity, indicating that cell wall composition might have been an important factor in controlling cell lysis

Análise de dados categóricos de integridade celular de cianobactérias.

The techniques used in cyanobacterial cell integrity/viability studies provide two outcomes: intact cells or not. These categorical and dichotomous values often make statistical analysis of the results difficult. In this context, the aim of this paper is to present two methodologies for the analysis of these data, showing a detailed sequence of procedures that allow analyzing, with the necessary statistical accuracy, categorized cell integrity data. For this, 3600-records database was used with the results of cellular integrity of Dc and Rr. Among the results, the traditional approach proved appropriate to identify the association between causes and effect respecting the specific characteristics of each species and the odds ratio (OR) calculation allowed to measure the associations. In this multivariate approach, the estimated OR requires a differentiated interpretation in relation to the traditional approach since the estimates are adjusted for the effect of all other variables of the model

Identification of cyanobacteria producing saxitoxins reservoir multipurpose semiÃrio in CearÃ

No semi-Ãrido brasileiro, devido Ãs caracterÃsticas climÃticas, ao regime irregular de chuvas e Ãs caracterÃsticas do solo, a principal fonte de Ãgua para abastecimento humano tem sido os reservatÃrios artificiais de superfÃcie, aÃudes. A ocupaÃÃo e exploraÃÃo desordenada dos recursos naturais nas bacias hidrogrÃficas, alÃm da alta evaporaÃÃo e da radiaÃÃo solar, interferem negativamente na qualidade da Ãgua armazenada. Como consequÃncia, esses reservatÃrios apresentam um processo de eutrofizaÃÃo acelerado, levando frequentemente a floraÃÃes de fitoplÃnctons, comunidade esta predominantemente dominada por CianobactÃrias. Devido grande parte desses organismos serem produtores de toxinas, podendo causar uma sÃrie de problemas à populaÃÃo, decidiu-se monitorar a comunidade fitoplanctÃnica do aÃude SÃtios Novos, reservatÃrio de usos mÃltiplos, localizado no municÃpio de Caucaia-CE, de janeiro de 2010 a junho de 2011 investigando a produÃÃo de toxinas pelos organismos dominantes. Identificou-se 41 tÃxons, 19 de cianobactÃrias e 22 de algas. Apesar da predominÃncia de nÃmero de tÃxons de algas, estas representaram menos de 10% dos organismos quantificados, com exceÃÃo de 1 amostragem. Jà as cianobactÃrias estiveram presentes em todas as amostragens, dominando quantitativamente o ambiente aquÃtico. Dentre o grupo de cianobactÃrias, destacaram-se Planktothrix agardhii (PA) e Cylindrospermosis raciborskii (CR). A abundÃncia de PA ao longo de todo o perÃodo de amostragem variou de 0 a 5.83x105 cel.mL-1, o que representou 94% da abundÃncia total do fitoplÃncton. A densidade mÃdia da PA foi 7.54.104 cel.mL-1. A abundÃncia CR no mesmo perÃodo variou de 0 a 3.32x104 cell.mL-1, representando 18,9% do total da comunidade fitoplanctÃnica. A abundÃncia mÃdia de CR foi 8.21.103 cel.mL-1. As espÃcies dominantes foram isoladas, e realizando-se bioensaios em camundongos, teste ELISA e mÃtodo de detecÃÃo por HPLC, observou-se a produÃÃo de STX e dc-STX pela CR e dc-GTX pela PA. Essa problemÃtica evidencia a necessidade da implementaÃÃo de aÃÃes integradas dos ÃrgÃos ambiental, de gestÃo dos recursos hÃdricos e companhia de sanamento estadual visando a prevenÃÃo e remediaÃÃo do processo de degradaÃÃo da qualidade da Ãgua, atuando na ampliaÃÃo do saneamento bÃsico, na educaÃÃo ambiental, na fiscalizaÃÃo dos usos e ocupaÃÃes do solo na bacia hidrogrÃfica mas, principalmente, no controle das atividades de piscicultura na bacia hidrÃulica, que ocorrem de maneira superintensiva.In Brazilian semi-arid Northeast region due to irregular rainfall regime, climatic and soil characteristics, the main source of human water supply has been artificial surface reservoirs. Disorderly occupation and exploitation of natural resources on those hydrographic basins, alongside high evaporation and solar radiation, promote negative impact on stored water quality. As a consequence, the reservoirs present themselves in a process of accelerated eutrophication, often leading to phytoplankton blooms, predominantly dominated by Cyanobacteria. Due to many of these organisms are toxin-producing, which can cause a sort of problems to the population, it was decided to monitor the phytoplankton community of a multipurpose reservoir, located in the municipality of Caucaia-CE, from January 2010 to June 2011, as well as investigate the production of toxins by the dominant organisms. We identified 41 taxa, 19 of cyanobacteria and 22 of algae. Despite the predominance of algae over the identified taxa, they accounted for less than 10% of the quantified organisms, except for one sample. However cyanobacteria were present in all samples, quantitatively dominating the aquatic environment. Among the group of cyanobacteria, excelled Planktothrix agardhii (PA) and Cylindrospermosis raciborskii (CR). PA abundance along all sampling period ranged from 0 to 5.83x105 cells.mL-1 , which accounted for 94% of the total phytoplankton abundance. The average density of PA was 7.54.104 cells.mL-1 . The CR abundance in the same period ranged from 0 to 3.32x104 cells.mL-1 , accounting for 18,9% of total phytoplankton community. The average abundance of CR was 8.21.103 cells.mL-1. The dominant species were isolated and carrying out mice bioassay , ELISA and HPLC analysis, we observed the production of STX and dc-STX by CR and dc-GTX by PA. This issue highlights the need for the implementation of integrated actions from environmental agencies, water resources management and sanitation State companies towards the prevention and remediation of the degradation of water quality, acting in the expansion of sanitation, environmental education, oversighting of the use and occupation of the watershed lands, but mainly in the control of aquaculture activities in the hydraulic basin, which occur in a super intensive way

Detection of morphological changes caused by chemical stress in the cyanobacterium Planktothrix agardhii using convolutional neural networks.

The presence of harmful algal bloom in many reservoirs around the world, alongside the lack of sanitation law/ordinance regarding cyanotoxin monitoring (particularly in developing countries), create a scenario in which the local population could potentially chronically consume cyanotoxin-contaminated waters. Therefore, it is crucial to develop low cost tools to detect possible systems failures and consequent toxin release inferred by morphological changes of cyanobacteria in the raw water. This paper aimed to look for the best combination of convolutional neural network (CNN), optimizer and image segmentation technique to differentiate P. agardhii trichomes before and after chemical stress caused by the addition of hydrogen peroxide. This method takes a step towards accurate monitoring of cyanobacteria in the field without the need for a mobile lab. After testing three different network architectures (AlexNet, 3ConvLayer and 2ConvLayer), four different optimizers (Adam, Adagrad, RMSProp and SDG) and five different image segmentations methods (Canny Edge Detection, Morphological Filter, HP filter, GrabCut and Watershed), the combination 2ConvLayer with Adam optimizer and GrabCut segmentation, provided the highest median accuracy (93.33%) for identifying H2O2-induced morphological changes in P. agardhii. Our results emphasize the fact that the trichome classification problem can be adequately tackled with a limited number of learned features due to the lack of complexity in micrographs from before and after chemical stress. To the authors knowledge, this is the first time that CNNs were applied to detect morphological changes in cyanobacteria caused by chemical stress. Thus, it is a significant step forward in developing low cost tools based on image recognition, to shield water consumers, especially in the poorest regions, against cyanotoxin-contaminated water

Prevalence of paralytic shellfish poison-producing Planktothrix agardhii and Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii in a Brazilian semi-arid reservoir

Aim: The present study aimed to investigate the composition and toxicity of the phytoplankton in Sítios Novos reservoir, used mainly as drinking water supply for approximately 30,000 people.MethodsSamples were collected between January 2010 and June 2011.ResultsDuring this period 19 taxa of cyanobacteria and 22 of algae were identified. Out of 45 samples collected, algae accounted for no more than 10% of the quantified organisms in 44 samples. Cyanobacteria accounted for 100% of the organisms quantified in three samples and for 99% in other 29 samples. Among the cyanobacteria group, Planktothrix agardhii (Gomont) Anagnostidis & Komárek and Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii (Woloszynska) Seenaya & Subbaraju prevailed and both strains were isolated and identified as paralytic shellfish poison (PSP) producers. C. raciborskii strain has shown to produce SXT and dcSXT while P. agardhii strain has shown to produce dcGTX2 or 3.ConclusionsTo the author’s knowledge, this is the first report of PSP-producer cyanobacteria species isolated in Northeastern Brazil and the first reported of a P. agardhii synthesizing dcGTX2/3

Estudo das condições de estratificação e da qualidade da água do reservatório Gavião (Ceará - Brasil)

O reservatório Gavião, no Estado do Ceará, é considerado estratégico já que é ponto final do sistema que atende às demandas do abastecimento de água de Fortaleza. A presente pesquisa focou na dinâmica dos processos de estratificação térmica e seus impactos na qualidade da água. Para essa avaliação, foram analisados dados climatológicos, de gestão do regime operacional e do monitoramento das variáveis ambientais. Foi observada forte estratificação da coluna d’água em vários momentos do primeiro semestre do ano com termoclina na profundidade de 6,50 a 7,50 m abaixo da superfície. Nesse período, ocorreu maior densidade de cianobactérias, com predominância da Pseudonabaena sp em relação às demais espécies. No segundo semestre, constataram-se processos de desestratificação com mais frequência e predominância da Planktothix sp devido ao menor aquecimento da camada superficial, à maior velocidade dos ventos, ao manejo operacional da transferência de água entre bacias hidrográficas e à retirada pela tomada d’água para atender à demanda da Capital e de municípios adjacentes