Comparison of Bacteroides Human Markers for Pollution Diagnostics in Recreational Waters

This presentation was given during the Great Lakes Beach Association Annual Conference

Sex differences in cooperative coalitions: a mammalian perspective

In group-living species, cooperative tactics can offset asymmetries in resource-holding potential between individuals and alter the outcome of intragroup conflicts. Differences in the kinds of competitive pressures that males and females face might influence the benefits they gain from forming intragroup coalitions. We predicted that there would be a female bias in intragroup coalitions because females (1) are more like to live with kin than males are, and (2) compete over resources that are more readily shared than resources males compete over. We tested this main prediction using information about coalition formation across mammalian species and phylogenetic comparative analyses. We found that for nearly all species in which intragroup coalitions occur, members of both sexes participate, making this the typical mammalian pattern. The presence and frequency of female or male coalitions were not strongly associated with key socio-ecological factors like resource defensibility, sexual dimorphism or philopatry. This suggests that once the ability to form intragroup coalitions emerges in one sex, it is likely to emerge in the other sex as well and that there is no strong phylogenetic legacy of sex differences in this form of cooperation. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Cooperation among women: evolutionary and cross-cultural perspectives’

Bacterial communities of planktonic bacteria and mature biofilm in service lines and premise plumbing of a Megacity:Composition, Diversity, and influencing factors

Although simulated studies have provided valuable knowledge regarding the communities of planktonic bacteria and biofilms, the lack of systematic field studies have hampered the understanding of microbiology in real-world service lines and premise plumbing. In this study, the bacterial communities of water and biofilm were explored, with a special focus on the lifetime development of biofilm communities and their key influencing factors. The 16S rRNA gene sequencing results showed that both the planktonic bacteria and biofilm were dominated by Proteobacteria. Among the 15,084 observed amplicon sequence variants (ASVs), the 33 core ASVs covered 72.8 %, while the 12 shared core ASVs accounted for 62.2 % of the total sequences. Remarkably, it was found that the species richness and diversity of biofilm communities correlated with pipe age. The relative abundance of ASV2 (f_Sphingomonadaceae) was lower for pipe ages 40–50 years (7.9 %) than for pipe ages 10–20 years (59.3 %), while the relative abundance of ASV10 (f_Hyphomonadaceae) was higher for pipe ages 40–50 years (19.5 %) than its presence at pipe ages 20–30 years (1.9 %). The community of the premise plumbing biofilm had significantly higher species richness and diversity than that of the service line, while the steel-plastics composite pipe interior lined with polyethylene (S-PE) harbored significantly more diverse biofilm than the galvanized steel pipes (S-Zn). Interestingly, S-PE was enriched with ASV27 (g_Mycobacterium), while S-Zn pipes were enriched with ASV13 (g_Pseudomonas). Moreover, the network analysis showed that five rare ASVs, not core ASVs, were keystone members in biofilm communities, indicating the importance of rare members in the function and stability of biofilm communities. This manuscript provides novel insights into real-world service lines and premise plumbing microbiology, regarding lifetime dynamics (pipe age 10–50 years), and the influences of pipe types (premise plumbing vs. service line) and pipe materials (S-Zn vs. S-PE).</p

Building water quality deterioration during water supply restoration after interruption:Influences of premise plumbing configuration

Premise plumbing plays an essential role in determining the final quality of drinking water consumed by customers. However, little is known about the influences of plumbing configuration on water quality changes. This study selected parallel premise plumbing in the same building with different configurations, i.e., laboratory and toilet plumbing. Water quality deteriorations induced by premise plumbing under regular and interrupted water supply were investigated. The results showed that most of the water quality parameters did not vary under regular supply, except Zn, which was significantly increased by laboratory plumbing (78.2 to 260.7 µg/l). For the bacterial community, the Chao1 index was significantly increased by both plumbing types to a similar level (52 to 104). Laboratory plumbing significantly changed the bacterial community, but toilet plumbing did not. Remarkably, water supply interruption/restoration led to serious water quality deterioration in both plumbing types but resulted in different changes. Physiochemically, discoloration was observed only in laboratory plumbing, along with sharp increases in Mn and Zn. Microbiologically, the increase in ATP was sharper in toilet plumbing than in laboratory plumbing. Some opportunistic pathogen-containing genera, e.g., Legionella spp. and Pseudomonas spp., were present in both plumbing types but only in disturbed samples. This study highlighted the esthetic, chemical, and microbiological risks associated with premise plumbing, for which system configuration plays an important role. Attention should be given to optimizing premise plumbing design for managing building water quality.</p

Joint analysis of stressors and ecosystem services to enhance restoration effectiveness

With increasing pressure placed on natural systems by growing human populations, both scientists and resource managers need a better understanding of the relationships between cumulative stress from human activities and valued ecosystem services. Societies often seek to mitigate threats to these services through large-scale, costly restoration projects, such as the over one billion dollar Great Lakes Restoration Initiative currently underway. To help inform these efforts, we merged high-resolution spatial analyses of environmental stressors with mapping of ecosystem services for all five Great Lakes. Cumulative ecosystem stress is highest in near-shore habitats, but also extends offshore in Lakes Erie, Ontario, and Michigan. Variation in cumulative stress is driven largely by spatial concordance among multiple stressors, indicating the importance of considering all stressors when planning restoration activities. In addition, highly stressed areas reflect numerous different combinations of stressors rather than a single suite of problems, suggesting that a detailed understanding of the stressors needing alleviation could improve restoration planning. We also find that many important areas for fisheries and recreation are subject to high stress, indicating that ecosystem degradation could be threatening key services. Current restoration efforts have targeted high-stress sites almost exclusively, but generally without knowledge of the full range of stressors affecting these locations or differences among sites in service provisioning. Our results demonstrate that joint spatial analysis of stressors and ecosystem services can provide a critical foundation for maximizing social and ecological benefits from restoration investments. www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1213841110/-/DCSupplementa

Modeling the role of fomites in a norovirus outbreak

Norovirus accounts for a large portion of the gastroenteritis disease burden, and outbreaks have occurred in a wide variety of environments. Understanding the role of fomites in norovirus transmission will inform behavioral interventions, such as hand washing and surface disinfection. The purpose of this study was to estimate the contribution of fomite-mediated exposures to infection and illness risks in outbreaks. A simulation model in discrete time that accounted for hand-to-porous surfaces, hand-to-nonporous surfaces, hand-to-mouth, -eyes, -nose, and hand washing events was used to predict 17 hr of simulated human behavior. Norovirus concentrations originated from monitoring contamination levels on surfaces during an outbreak on houseboats. To predict infection risk, two dose-response models (fractional Poisson and 2F1 hypergeometric) were used to capture a range of infection risks. A triangular distribution describing the conditional probability of illness given an infection was multiplied by modeled infection risks to estimate illness risks. Infection risks ranged from 70.22% to 72.20% and illness risks ranged from 21.29% to 70.36%. A sensitivity analysis revealed that the number of hand-to-mouth contacts and the number of hand washing events had strong relationships with model-predicted doses. Predicted illness risks overlapped with leisure setting and environmental attack rates reported in the literature. In the outbreak associated with the viral concentrations used in this study, attack rates ranged from 50% to 86%. This model suggests that fomites may have accounted for 25% to 82% of illnesses in this outbreak. Fomite-mediated exposures may contribute to a large portion of total attack rates in outbreaks involving multiple transmission modes. The findings of this study reinforce the importance of frequent fomite cleaning and hand washing, especially when ill persons are present.12 month embargo; published online: 04 Feb 2019This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Aquarium Viromes: Viromes of Human-Managed Aquatic Systems

An aquarium ecosystem is home to many animal species providing conditions similar to native aquatic habitats but under highly controlled management. With a growing interest in understanding the interaction of microbiomes and resident animal health within aquarium environments, we undertook a metagenomic survey of viromes in seven aquarium systems with differing physicochemical and resident animal profiles. Our results show that a diverse array of viruses was represented in aquarium viromes, many of which were widespread in different aquarium systems (27 common viral families in all of the aquarium systems). Most viromes were dominated by DNA phages of the order Caudovirales as commonly found in other aquatic environments with average relative abundance greater than 64%. The composition and structure of aquarium viromes were associated with controlled system parameters, including nitrate, salinity, and temperature as well as resident animal profiles, indicating the close interaction of viromes with aquarium management practices. Furthermore, finding human associated viruses in a touch exhibit suggested that exposure of aquarium systems to human contact may lead to introduction of human cutaneous viruses into aquaria. This is consistent with the high abundance of skin microflora on the palms of healthy individuals and their detection in recreational waters, such as swimming pools. Lastly, assessment of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in aquarium viromes revealed a unique signature of ARGs in different aquarium systems with trimethoprim being the most common. This is the first study to provide vital information on viromes and their unique relationships with management practices in a human-built and controlled aquarium environment

Techno-Economic Analysis of Electrocoagulation on Water Reclamation and Bacterial/Viral Indicator Reductions of a High-Strength Organic Wastewater—Anaerobic Digestion Effluent

This study investigated the use of iron and aluminum and their combinations as electrodes to determine the technically sound and economically feasible electrochemical approach for the treatment of anaerobic digestion effluent. The results indicated that the use of iron as anode and cathode is the most suitable solution among different electrode combinations. The reduction of turbidity, total chemical oxygen demand, total phosphorus, total coliforms, Escherichia coli, Enterococci, and phages in the reclaimed water were 99%, 91%, 100%, 1.5 log, 1.7 log, 1.0 log, and 2.0 log, respectively. The economic assessment further concluded that the average treatment cost is $3 per 1000 L for a small-scale operation handling 3000 L wastewater/day. This study demonstrated that the electrocoagulation (EC) is a promising technique for the recovery and reclamation of water from anaerobic digestion effluent. Even though its energy consumption is higher and the nitrogen removal is insufficient compared to some conventional wastewater treatment technologies, there are several advantages of the EC treatment, such as short retention time, small footprint, no mixing, and gradual addition of coagulants. These features make EC technology applicable to be used alone or combined with other technologies for a wide range of wastewater treatment application

Using Satellite Images of Environmental Changes to Predict Infectious Disease Outbreaks

A strong global satellite imaging system is essential for predicting outbreaks

Rating impacts in a multi‐stressor world: a quantitative assessment of 50 stressors affecting the Great Lakes

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/116318/1/eap2015253717.pd