Chapter 2 Performance Criteria

C. Hagedorn et al. (eds.), Microbial Source Tracking: Methods, Applications, and Case Studies, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-9386-1_2, © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011 Abstract The establishment of rigorous, consistent performance criteria for microbial source tracking (MST) methods is essential for their usefulness and widespread acceptance as research and regulatory tools. In this chapter, we focus on performance criteria for library-independent methods, although many aspects of the discussion are applicable to both library-independent and library-dependent methods. We separate these criteria into three levels for ease of discussion: (1) the intrinsic characteristics of the “marker” (target), (2) protocols for generating laboratory data, and (3) field applications. By ensuring that a consistent set of metrics for characteristics such as accuracy and precision be applied to field studies and published works, we can begin to circumscribe the set of MST tools that will be most useful for discriminating among fecal pollution sources in environmental waters.