{"id":165360,"date":"2022-09-18T08:00:13","date_gmt":"2022-09-18T18:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=165360"},"modified":"2022-09-21T10:07:13","modified_gmt":"2022-09-21T20:07:13","slug":"sources-of-staph-fecal-bacteria-hilo-bay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2022\/09\/18\/sources-of-staph-fecal-bacteria-hilo-bay\/","title":{"rendered":"Sources of staph, fecal bacteria washing into Hilo Bay detected by UH<\/abbr> scientists"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
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Hilo Bay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A newly published University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at Hilo<\/a> study identifies the origins of the high levels of harmful bacteria that wash into Hilo Bay following heavy rainfall. The research team collected soil samples from urban, agriculture and native-forest land areas in the Hilo Bay watershed. Staphylococcus aureus<\/a><\/em> (known informally as “staph”), methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus<\/em><\/a> (MRSA<\/abbr>) and fecal indicator bacteria (FIB<\/abbr>) were present in soil from all land uses. However, the highest concentration was detected in urban soils found on residential properties and farm lots, and the lowest in native-forests.<\/p>\n

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Soil samples were collected from different land uses on Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Island.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The study is published in the Journal of Environmental Quality<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“This research resulted from community members always talking about staph or MRSA<\/abbr> infections that are acquired while swimming,” said Tracy Wiegner<\/strong>, a UH<\/abbr> Hilo marine science professor who co-authored the study and is director of the Tropical Conservation Biology and Environmental Sciences<\/a> (TCBES<\/abbr>) graduate program.<\/p>\n

MRSA<\/abbr> and other fecal indicators increase in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>\u2019s streams and estuaries following storms and pose a health threat to recreational water users. According to researchers, identifying watershed bacteria sources are critical to implementing management actions to reduce risks.<\/p>\n

Lead researcher Tyler Gerken<\/strong>, a UH<\/abbr> Hilo alumnus spearheaded the study in 2018, while he was an undergraduate. Gerken, a Keaʻau<\/span> native, is a descendant of Kahuna Lāʻau<\/span> Lapaʻau<\/span> or masters of traditional Native Hawaiian healing, which has fueled his dedication to environmental justice. Louise Economy<\/strong>, an alumna of UH<\/abbr> Hilo\u2019s TCBES<\/abbr> graduate program, who is currently employed by the Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Department of Health and also co-authored the study.<\/p>\n

Harmful staph, bacteria detection<\/h2>\n
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Research found that levels of pathogenic bacteria are highest in urban and agricultural soils.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2019, Economy worked alongside this same team of researchers to publish a groundbreaking study<\/a> that confirmed rainfall-driven runoff increases concentrations of harmful bacteria in Hilo Bay. The scientists used culture-based methods to quantify the presence of staph, MRSA<\/abbr> and FIB<\/abbr> in Hilo Bay and in soils, sands, rivers, wastewater, and storm water within the Hilo watershed. These pathogen concentrations were then compared with rainfall and river discharge levels and water quality data. The results showed that staph and FIB<\/abbr> concentrations increased with rainfall and river discharge.<\/p>\n

“One way to reduce the amount of bacteria going into water bodies is to employ green infrastructure technology, which includes things like maintaining riparian (or streamside) wetlands, constructing wetlands for stormwater retention, and beach grooming,” explained Wiegner. “These techniques have been successfully used in the Great Lakes region of the United States to improve water quality and make it safer for swimmers.”<\/p>\n

For more go to UH<\/abbr> Hilo Stories<\/em><\/a>.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Harmful bacteria were present in soil samples from urban, agriculture and native-forest land areas in the Hilo Bay watershed. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[90,665,758,262,73,232,14],"class_list":["post-165360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-alumni","tag-conservation","tag-environmental-science","tag-marine-science","tag-sustainability","tag-tropical-conservation-biology-and-environmental-science","tag-uh-hilo","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165360"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":165660,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165360\/revisions\/165660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}