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Sterols and sterol ratios to trace fecal contamination: pitfalls and potential solutions

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Abstract

Fecal pollution in surface waters is a major threat to recreational and drinking water resources, with Escherichia coli being a primary concern. The best way to mitigate fecal pollutant loading is to identify the sources and tailor remediation strategies to reduce loading. Tracking E. coli back to its source is notoriously difficult in a mixed-use watershed where input from humans, wildlife, and livestock all contribute to E. coli loading. One proposed tracking method for E. coli contamination is the use of fecal sterols and sterol ratios. This study uses fecal sterol data published globally to assess how well sterol compositions for different species clusters along with the effectiveness of sterol ratios as tracking tools. Hierarchical cluster analysis produces stronger clusters based on sterol ratios than raw sterol concentration, but the global dataset results in clustering of the same species in different levels. The accuracy of the sterol ratios was also compared to understand the rate of false negatives and false positive assignments. Overall, these ratios did not have a high success rate for determining the correct source, which was also reflected in the poor clustering trends observed. Establishing local end-member sterol profiles is essential when using sterol signatures to unravel fecal loading.

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Data availability

All data generated and analyzed during this study are included in the Supplementary Information associated with this article.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to P. Tyagi and M. Coyne for providing data from Tyagi et al. (2007) to include in this meta-analysis. We also acknowledge the reviewers and editors that provided feedback to improve the manuscript.

Funding

This work was funded in part by the Auburn University Intramural Grants Program to ASO and the Alabama Water Resources Research Institute Graduate Student Grant to EAL and ASO.

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Authors

Contributions

Eleanore Larson: writing—original draft/reviewing and editing, data analysis, data curation, funding acquisition. Ayomide Afolabi: software, investigation, data analysis, writing—review and editing. Jingyi Zheng: supervision, writing—review and editing. Ann S. Ojeda: supervision, visualization, writing—review and editing, funding acquisition.

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Correspondence to Ann Sullivan Ojeda.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Responsible Editor: Ester Heath

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Supplementary Information

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Supplementary file1 (DOCX 811 kb)

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Larson, E.A., Afolabi, A., Zheng, J. et al. Sterols and sterol ratios to trace fecal contamination: pitfalls and potential solutions. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 53395–53402 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-19611-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-19611-2

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