Persistence of E. Coli O157:H7 in Urban Recreational Waters From Spring and Autumn: A Comparison Analysis

Abstract Persistence of E. coli O157: H7 (EcO157) in 48 water samples (24 Spring samples and 24 Autumn samples) from 3 urban recreational waters in Changchun City was investigated, and multivariate statistical analysis was performed to correlate survival data with water physicochemical properties and bacterial communities. Our data showed that EcO157 survived longer in Spring samples than in Autumn samples regardless of the lakes. Results revealed that recreational water physicochemical properties and bacterial community in Spring samples were different from those in Autumn samples. Mantel and Partial Mantel tests, as well as co-occurrence network analysis illustrated that EC salinity, TOC and bacterial community were correlated with survival time (ttd) (p < 0.05). Variation partition analysis (VPA) indicated that bacterial community, EC, TOC and TN explained about 64.81% of overall ttd variation in Spring samples, and bacterial community, EC, pH and TP accounted for about 56.59% of overall ttd variation in Autumn samples. Structural equation model (SEM) illustrated that EC indirectly positively affected ttd through bacterial community. The correlation between bacterial community and ttd was negative in Spring samples and positive in Autumn samples. TN appeared a direct positive effect on ttd in Spring samples. TP displayed a direct negative effect on ttd in Autumn samples. Our results concluded that there was seasonal variation in environmental factors that directly or indirectly affected the survival of EcO157 in urban recreational waters.