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To what extent can portable fluorescence spectroscopy be used in the real-time assessment of microbial water quality?
Baker, A. Cumberland, S.A. Bradley, C. Buckley, C. Bridgeman, John
Baker, A.
Cumberland, S.A.
Bradley, C.
Buckley, C.
Bridgeman, John
Publication Date
2015
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© 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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2015-05-25
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Abstract
The intrinsic fluorescence of aquatic organic matter emitted at 350 nm when excited at 280 nm correlates widely
with water quality parameters such as biochemical oxygen demand. Hence, in sewage-impacted rivers and
groundwater, it might be expected that fluorescence at these wavelengths will also correlate with the microbial
water quality. In this paper we use a portable fluorimeter to assess the relationship between fluorescence
intensity at this wavelength pair and Escherichia coli enumeration in contrasting river catchments of poor
water quality: in KwaZulu-Natal, S. Africa and the West Midlands, UK. Across all catchments we demonstrate a
log correlation (r = 0.74) between fluorescence intensity and E. coli over a seven-log range in E. coli enumerations
on non-perturbed (unfiltered) samples. Within specific catchments, the relationship between fluorescence
intensity and E. coli is more variable, demonstrating the importance of catchment-specific interference. Our
research demonstrates the potential of using a portable fluorimeter as an initial screening tool for indicative
microbial water quality, and one that is ideally suited to simple pollution scenarios such as assessing the impact
of faecal contamination in river or groundwater at specific sites.
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Citation
Baker A, Cumberland SA, Bradley C et al (2015) To what extent can portable fluorescence spectroscopy be used in the real-time assessment of microbial water quality? Science of the Total Environment. 532: 14-19.
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