Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Identifying fecal sources in a selected catchment reach using multiple source-tracking tools.

Jason R Vogel1, Donald M Stoeckel, Regina Lamendella

  • 1USGS, 5231 S. 19th St., Lincoln, NE 68512, USA. jrvogel@usgs.gov

Journal of Environmental Quality
|April 7, 2007
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

OH-MEMA: An Integrated One Health Mixed-Effects Modeling Approach for Syndromic Surveillance.

Journal of clinical medicine·2026
Same author

Effect of AG1<sup>®</sup> supplementation on nutritional adequacy and gut microbial composition in trained adults.

Frontiers in nutrition·2026
Same author

Triangulating primary sources, professional judgement, and LLM-generated summaries: Educating nurses in an AI-first world.

Nurse education in practice·2026
Same author

Metagenomic surveillance of tick-borne pathogens and microbiomes in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania.

One health (Amsterdam, Netherlands)·2026
Same author

Every publication needs an author verified TL;DR statement.

Nurse education in practice·2025
Same author

Acute 17β-Estradiol Administration Enhances Fear Extinction Memory and Alters Gut Microbiota in Female Rats.

Biological psychiatry global open science·2025

Comparing microbial source-tracking tools in Plum Creek, Nebraska, revealed that Escherichia coli (E. coli) rep-PCR identified cattle and wildlife as primary fecal sources. Bacteroidales markers were more effective in sediment than water for source identification.

Area of Science:

  • Environmental microbiology
  • Water quality assessment
  • Microbial source tracking (MST)

Background:

  • Current microbial source-tracking (MST) tools have limitations, often necessitating focused studies in smaller areas for clearer interpretations of fecal contamination.
  • Evaluating multiple MST tools simultaneously provides a comprehensive understanding of fecal pollution sources in aquatic environments.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate the effectiveness of three distinct MST tools: Escherichia coli repetitive element polymerase chain reaction (rep-PCR), coliphage typing, and Bacteroidales 16S rDNA host-associated markers.
  • To compare the performance of these tools in identifying fecal contamination sources in a selected reach of Plum Creek, Nebraska.
  • To assess the utility of different MST approaches in flowing surface water and sediment samples.

Main Methods:

Related Experiment Videos

  • Water and sediment samples were collected from six sites along Plum Creek.
  • Three MST methods were applied: E. coli rep-PCR, coliphage typing, and Bacteroidales 16S rDNA host-associated markers.
  • A comparative analysis of the results from each MST tool was conducted to determine dominant fecal sources.

Main Results:

  • Coliphage typing was ineffective due to infrequent detection in water samples.
  • E. coli rep-PCR identified cattle and wildlife as the primary sources of fecal contamination, with minor contributions from horses and humans.
  • Bacteroidales markers detected ruminant and human sources in sediment more consistently than in water, irrespective of E. coli concentrations.

Conclusions:

  • While E. coli rep-PCR and Bacteroidales markers yielded similar overall interpretations, Bacteroidales markers in sediment proved more informative than in water.
  • The study highlights that different MST tools, such as DNA-based markers and isolate-based methods, have varying relevance for tracking specific fecal sources like E. coli in watersheds.
  • This research is the first to report the simultaneous application of library-based and marker-based MST analyses in flowing surface water.