Indicator bacteria community in seawater and coastal sediment: the Persian Gulf as a case.

Abstract BACKGROUND: The aim of present work was to assess the concentration levels as well as vertical distribution of indicator bacteria including total coliform, fecal coliform, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Heterotrophic Plate Count (HPC) in the marine environment (seawater and coastal sediments) and evaluate the correlation between indicator bacteria and some physicochemical parameters of surface sediments as well as seawaters. METHODS: A total number of 48 seawater and sediment samples were taken from 8 stations (each site 6 times with an interval time of 2 weeks) between June and September 2014. Seawater and sediment samples were collected from 30 cm under the surface samples and different sediment depths (0, 4, 7, 10, 15, and 20 cm) respectively, along the Persian Gulf in Bushehr coastal areas. RESULTS: Based on the results, the average numbers of bacterial indicators including total coliform, fecal coliform, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa as well as HPC in seawater samples were 1238.13, 150.87, 8.22 MPN/100 ml and 1742.91 CFU/ml, respectively, and in sediment samples at different depths (from 0-20 cm) varied between 25 × 103 to 51.67 × 103, 5.63 × 103 to 12.46 × 103, 17.33 to 65 MPN/100 ml, 36 × 103 to 147.5 × 103 CFU/ml, respectively. There were no statistically significant relationships between the indicator organism concentration levels with temperature as well as pH value of seawater. A reverse correlation was found between the level of indicator bacteria and salinity of seawater samples. Also results revealed that the sediment texture influenced abundance of indicators bacteria in sediments. As the concentration levels of indicators bacteria were higher in muddy sediments compare with sandy ones. CONCLUSION: Result conducted Bushehr coastal sediments constitute a reservoir of indicator bacteria, therefore, whole of the indicators determined were distinguished to be present in higher levels in sediments than in the overlying seawater. It was concluded that the concentration levels of microbial indicators decreased with depth in sediments. Except total coliform, the numbers of other bacteria including fecal coliform, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and HPC bacteria significantly declined in the depth between 10 and 15 cm

Data on heavy metals and selected anions in the Persian popular herbal distillates

In this data article, we determined the concentration levels of heavy metals including Pb, Co, Cd, Mn, Mg, Fe and Cu as well as selected anions including NO3- , NO2-, PO4-3 and SO4-2 in the most used and popular herbal distillates in Iran. It is well known that heavy metals may pose a serious health hazard due to their bioaccumulation throughout the trophic chain ("Heavy metals (Cd, Cu, Ni and Pb) content in two fish species of Persian Gulf in Bushehr Port, Iran" (Dobaradaran et al., 2013) [1]; "Comparative investigation of heavy metal, trace, and macro element contents in commercially valuable fish species harvested off from the Persian Gulf" (Abadi et al., 2015) [2]) as well as some other environmental pollutions, "Assessment of sediment quality based on acid-volatile sulfide and simultaneously extracted metals in heavily industrialized area of Asaluyeh, Persian Gulf: concentrations, spatial distributions, and sediment bioavailability/toxicity" (Arfaeinia et al., 2016) [3]. The concentration levels of heavy metals and anions in herbal distillates samples were determined using flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS, Varian AA240, Australia) and a spectrophotometer (M501 Single Beam Scanning UV/VIS, UK) respectivel

Biosorption of fluoride from aqueous phase onto Padina sanctae crucis algae: evaluation of biosorption kinetics and isotherms

Biosorption is considered as one of the favorable treatment technologies for fluoride removal from aqueous solutions. The present study is the first attempt to evaluate the biosorption capability of the Padina sanctae crucis algae in removal of fluoride from aqueous phase. Biosorption was studied in a series of batch experiments at room temperature (25 ± 1°C). The effects of experimental parameters such as biosorbent dose (0.8–64 g/L), contact time (5–120 min), pH (3, 7, and 11), initial fluoride concentration (2–8 mg/L), and the presence of competing anions (bicarbonate, nitrate, carbonate, sulfate, and chloride) were investigated. The highest removal biosorption was observed at 48 g/L biosorbent dose, 5 min contact time, and initial fluoride concentration at 8 mg/L (97% fluoride removal). Competing anions had no significant effect on the fluoride biosorption by the biosorbent. Freundlich model was better fitted than Langmuir model that showed heterogeneous biosorption surface and the possibility of multilayer biosorption of fluoride by biosorbent. The biosorption kinetics was controlled by the pseudo-second-order and pore diffusion models. It was concluded that the Padina sanctae crucis algae can be used as an effective, low-cost, and environmental friendly biosorbent for fluoride removal from aqueous solutions