ARS | Publication request: TRANSPORT OF MICROORGANISMS IN THE PRESENCE AND ABSENCE OF MANURE SUSPENSIONS

Submitted to: American Geophysical Union
Publication Type: Abstract
Publication Acceptance Date: October 1, 2004
Publication Date: December 1, 2004
Citation: Bradford, S.A., Tadassa, Y.F., Bettahar, M. 2004. Transport of microorganisms in the presence and absence of manure suspensions. American Geophysical Union, Abstracts of Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA. 85:47.

Technical Abstract: Wash water and storm water runoff from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) frequently contain manure and a variety of viral, bacterial, and protozoan parasite pathogens. Column experiments were conducted to elucidate the transport behavior of representative microbes (coliphage, Escherichia coli O157:H7, and Giardia cysts) through several aquifer sands in the presence and absence of manure suspensions. Specific factors that were considered include the soil grain size distribution, the presence and absence of manure suspensions, and manure size distribution. Effluent concentration curves and the final spatial distributions of microorganisms and manure particles were measured. Increasing the microbe size and decreasing the median grain size of the sand resulted in low effluent concentrations and increased retention of the microbes, especially in the sand near the column inlet. Similar transport trends were observed for the manure suspensions in these sands. The spatial distributions of retained microbes and manure were generally not consistent with predictions from conventional attachment, detachment, and blocking models; but rather with straining. The transport potential of the microbes was sometimes enhanced in the presence of manure suspensions. This observation, as well as transport and retention data for manure suspensions, suggest that manure components filled straining sites and inhibited microbe retention. Differences in the surface charge properties of clean and manure equilibrated microbes (presumably due to adsorption of organic components from the suspension) may also influence transport behavior.