- Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
M. Elias Dueker
Bard College, Environmental and Urban Studies, Faculty Member
- Marine Microbial Ecology, Water quality, Air Quality, Bioaerosols, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Climate Change, and 13 moreEnvironmental Science, Remote Sensing, Hydrology, Geophysics, Marine Biology, Marine Ecology, Meteorology, Atmospheric Science, Coastal Processes, Ecology of Coastal Systems, Microbiology, Environmental microbiology, and Environmental Microbiology - antibiotic resistance(Environmental Science, Remote Sensing, Hydrology, Geophysics, Marine Biology, Marine Ecology, Meteorology, Atmospheric Science, Coastal Processes, Ecology of Coastal Systems, Microbiology, Environmental microbiology, and Environmental Microbiology - antibiotic resistance)edit
ABSTRACT Microbes in the atmosphere (microbial aerosols) play an important role in climate and provide an ecological and biogeochemical connection between oceanic, atmospheric, and terrestrial environments. Despite the ubiquity of these... more
ABSTRACT Microbes in the atmosphere (microbial aerosols) play an important role in climate and provide an ecological and biogeochemical connection between oceanic, atmospheric, and terrestrial environments. Despite the ubiquity of these bacteria (concentration estimates range from 1 x 10^4 to 6 x 10^5 cells m-3), much is still being learned about their source, viability, and interactions with climatic controls. They can be attached to ambient aerosol particles or exist singly in the air. They affect climate by serving as ice, cloud, and fog nucleators, and have the metabolic potential to alter atmospheric chemistry. Fog presence in particular has been shown to greatly increase the deposition of viable microbial aerosols in both urban and coastal environments, but the mechanisms behind this are not fully understood. To address this gap, we examined the diversity of culturable microbial aerosols from a relatively pristine coastal environment in Maine (USA) and determined the effect of fog presence on viability and community composition of microbial aerosols. 16S rRNA sequencing of culturable ocean surface bacteria and depositing microbial aerosols (under clear and foggy conditions) resulted in the detection of 31 bacterial genera, with 5 dominant genera (Vibrio, Bacillus, Pseudoalteromonas, Psychrobacter, Salinibacterium) making up 66% of all sequences. Seventy-five percent of the viable microbial aerosols falling out under foggy conditions were most similar to GenBank-published sequences detected in marine environments. The fog and ocean surface sequence libraries were significantly more similar in microbial community composition than clear (non-foggy) and ocean surface libraries. These findings support a dual role for fog in enhancing the fallout of viable marine microbial aerosols via increased gravitational settling rates and decreased aerosolization stress on the organisms. The dominant presence of marine bacteria in coastal microbial aerosols provides a strong case for an ecologically-relevant ocean to terrestrial transport of microbes, creating a potential connection between water and air quality in the coastal environment.
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Research Interests: Microbiology, Earth Sciences, Environmental Science, Air Quality, Biogeochemistry, and 14 moreWater quality, Biological Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Aerosol, Biogeosciences, Particle Size, Marine Environment, Water Quality, Firmicutes, Wind Speed, Community Composition, Pseudoalteromonas, Environmental factor, and bacteroidetes
Research Interests: Environmental Science, Physics, Atmosphere, Aerosol, Sea Breeze, and 2 moreWind Speed and Shore(Wind Speed and Shore)
(Wind Speed and Shore)
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Sewage contamination of freshwater occurs in the form of raw waste or as effluent (at varying levels of treatment) from wastewater treatment plants. Global management of this contamination has focused on detection of live... more
Sewage contamination of freshwater occurs in the form of raw waste or as effluent (at varying levels of treatment) from wastewater treatment plants. Global management of this contamination has focused on detection of live sewage-indicating bacteria in freshwater, drinking water, and irrigation systems. While raw waste (animal and human) and underfunctioning WWTP's can introduce live enteric bacteria to freshwater systems, most WWTP's, even when operating correctly, do not remove bacterial genetic material from treated waste, resulting in the addition of concentrated enteric bacterial DNA (molecular contamination), including antibiotic resistance genes, into water columns and sediment of freshwater systems. In freshwater systems with both raw and treated waste inputs, then, there will be increased interaction between live sewage-associated bacteria (untreated sewage) and molecular contamination (from both untreated and treated wastewater effluent), with the potential of incre...
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Wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) discharges alter water quality and microbial communities by introducing human-associated bacteria in the environment and by altering microbial communities. To fully understand this impact, it is crucial... more
Wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) discharges alter water quality and microbial communities by introducing human-associated bacteria in the environment and by altering microbial communities. To fully understand this impact, it is crucial to study whether WWTP discharges affect water and sediments microbial communities in comparable ways and whether such effects depend on specific environmental variables. Here, we present a dataset investigating the impact of a WWTP on water quality and bacterial communities by comparing samples collected directly from the WWTP outflow to surface waters and sediments at two sites above and two sites below it over a period of five months. When possible, we measured five physicochemical variables (e.g., temperature, turbidity, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, and salinity), four bioindicators (e.g., Escherichia coli, total coliforms, Enterococcus sp., and endotoxins), and two molecular indicators (e.g., intI1’s relative abundance, and 16S rRNA gene profi...
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<p>Genera found to have significance as microbial indicators for Early and Mid phase leakage conditions.</p
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In addition to efforts aimed at reducing anthropogenic production of greenhouse gases, geo-logical storage of CO2 is being explored as a strategy to reduce atmospheric greenhouse gas emission and mitigate climate change. Previous studies... more
In addition to efforts aimed at reducing anthropogenic production of greenhouse gases, geo-logical storage of CO2 is being explored as a strategy to reduce atmospheric greenhouse gas emission and mitigate climate change. Previous studies of the deep subsurface in North America have not fully considered the potential negative effects of CO2 leakage into shallow drinking water aquifers, especially from amicrobiological perspective. A test well in the New-ark Rift Basin was utilized in two field experiments to investigate patterns of microbial succes-sion following injection of CO2-saturated water into an isolated aquifer interval, simulating a CO2 leakage scenario. A decrease in pH following injection of CO2 saturated aquifer water was accompanied by mobilization of trace elements (e.g. Fe and Mn), and increased bacteri-al cell concentrations in the recovered water. 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequence libraries from samples collected before and after the test well injection were compared ...
The effect of triclosan on microbial communities that are found in soil and sediments is well documented. However, little is known regarding the possible effects of triclosan on microbial communities that are present in the column of... more
The effect of triclosan on microbial communities that are found in soil and sediments is well documented. However, little is known regarding the possible effects of triclosan on microbial communities that are present in the column of freshwater streams as the antimicrobial is released from sediments or from water sewage outflow. We show that a concentration of triclosan as low as 1 ng/L decreases richness and evenness in freshwater microbial communities growing in the water column while using controlled experimental microcosms. Crucially, the decrease in evenness that was observed in the microbial communities was due to the selection of bacteria commonly associated with human activity, such as Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas, and Rhodobacter, as opposed to an increase in Cyanobacteria, as previously suggested. Finally, our results demonstrate that higher concentrations of triclosan comparable to heavily polluted environments can also impact the overall phylogenetic structure and communit...
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Research Interests: Environmental Science, Physics, Atmosphere, Aerosol, Sea Breeze, and 2 moreWind Speed and Shore(Wind Speed and Shore)
(Wind Speed and Shore)
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The source, characteristics and transport of viable microbial aerosols in urban centers are topics of significant environmental and public health concern. Recent studies have identified adjacent waterways, and especially polluted... more
The source, characteristics and transport of viable microbial aerosols in urban centers are topics of significant environmental and public health concern. Recent studies have identified adjacent waterways, and especially polluted waterways, as an important source of microbial aerosols to urban air. The size of these aerosols influences how far they travel, their resistance to environmental stress, and their inhalation potential. In this study, we utilize a cascade impactor and aerosol particle monitor to characterize the size distribution of particles and culturable bacterial and fungal aerosols along the waterfront of a New York City embayment. We seek to address the potential contribution of bacterial aerosols from local sources and to determine how their number, size distribution, and taxonomic identity are affected by wind speed and wind direction (onshore vs. offshore). Total culturable microbial counts were higher under offshore winds (average of 778 CFU/m(3) ± 67), with bacte...
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<p>Relative importance of iron (A, B) and sulfate (C, D) reducers in sequence libraries from samples taken over the course of the injection experiments (Injection 1 (A, C) and Injection 2 (B, D)). Vp/Vi = Volume Pumped/Volume... more
<p>Relative importance of iron (A, B) and sulfate (C, D) reducers in sequence libraries from samples taken over the course of the injection experiments (Injection 1 (A, C) and Injection 2 (B, D)). Vp/Vi = Volume Pumped/Volume Injected. As in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0117812#pone.0117812.g001" target="_blank">Fig. 1</a>, the x-axis is a ratio of the water volume pumped (Vp) out of the aquifer during the experiment and the CO<sub>2</sub> saturated water volume injected (Vi) at the start of the experiment. Dashed and shaded lines on the x-axis separate: “Background”; “Injection”; “Early”; “Mid”; and “Late” phases of the in situ incubation.</p
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<p>Chemical and physical parameters over the course of the in-situ injection experiment V<sub>p</sub>/V<sub>i</sub> = Volume pumped/Volume injected, with greater ratios representing longer incubation and... more
<p>Chemical and physical parameters over the course of the in-situ injection experiment V<sub>p</sub>/V<sub>i</sub> = Volume pumped/Volume injected, with greater ratios representing longer incubation and greater dilution of injection fluids. Injection 1 on the left (A, C, E, G, I), and Injection 2 on the right (B, D, F, H, J). Dashed and shaded lines on x-axis separate: “Background” aquifer fluid prior to bubbling with CO<sub>2</sub>; “Injection” fluid sampled during the injection, following CO<sub>2</sub> bubbling but prior to in situ incubation; and “Early”, “Mid”, and “Late” phases of the in situ experiment, with longer incubation represented by a higher ratio of volume pumped to volume injected (see <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0117812#pone.0117812.t001" target="_blank">Table 1</a>).</p
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<p>Relative importance of sulfur and iron oxidizers (A, B) and methanogens (C, D) in sequence libraries from samples taken over the course of the injection experiments (Injection 1 (A, C) and Injection 2 (B, D)). Vp/Vi = Volume... more
<p>Relative importance of sulfur and iron oxidizers (A, B) and methanogens (C, D) in sequence libraries from samples taken over the course of the injection experiments (Injection 1 (A, C) and Injection 2 (B, D)). Vp/Vi = Volume Pumped/Volume Injected. As in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0117812#pone.0117812.g001" target="_blank">Fig. 1</a>, the x-axis is a ratio of the water volume pumped (Vp) out of the aquifer during the experiment and the CO<sub>2</sub> saturated water volume injected (Vi) at the start of the experiment. Dashed and shaded lines on the x-axis separate: “Background”; “Injection”; “Early”; “Mid”; and “Late” phases of the in situ incubation.</p
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<p>Non-metric Multidimensional Scaling (NMS) ordination of microbial community composition from the two injection experiments, representing the similarity and succession of samples. Samples are labeled with a number corresponding to... more
<p>Non-metric Multidimensional Scaling (NMS) ordination of microbial community composition from the two injection experiments, representing the similarity and succession of samples. Samples are labeled with a number corresponding to injection 1 or injection 2, followed by a letter that corresponds to the collection order of samples with “A” representing background phase samples and consecutively collected samples listed in alphabetical order (See <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0117812#pone.0117812.g004" target="_blank">Fig. 4</a>). Samples are grouped by “phase” of the injection experiment (see <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0117812#pone.0117812.t001" target="_blank">Table 1</a>) with biplot overlay vectors (e.g pH, Sulfate) indicating the direction and relative magnitude of association between the environmental variables and the two axes used to ordinate community composition.</p
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Research Interests: Microbiology, Environmental Science, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Chemistry, Medicine, and 15 moreMultidisciplinary, Environmental science and technology, Aerosols, Atmosphere, Bacteria, Fog, Wind, Seawater, Particle Size, Science Technology, Coastal Zone, Water Movements, Wind Velocity, Air Pollutants, and Air Microbiology
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Research Interests: Microbiology, Environmental Science, Environmental Remediation, Environmental Monitoring, Hazardous Waste, and 14 moreEnvironmental Pollution, Medicine, Multidisciplinary, Environmental science and technology, Aerosols, Aquatic Ecosystem, Cities, Actinobacteria, Bacteria, Pollution, Environmental Pollutants, Environmental, Air Pollutants, and Air Microbiology
Aerosol production from surface waters results in the transfer of aquatic materials (including nutrients and bacteria) to air. These materials can then be transported by onshore winds to land, representing a biogeochemical connection... more
Aerosol production from surface waters results in the transfer of aquatic materials (including nutrients and bacteria) to air. These materials can then be transported by onshore winds to land, representing a biogeochemical connection between aquatic and terrestrial systems not normally considered. In urban waterfront environments, this transfer could result in emissions of pathogenic bacteria from contaminated waters. Despite the potential importance of this link, sources, near-shore deposition, identity and viability of microbial aerosols are largely uncharacterized. This dissertation focuses on the environmental and biological mechanisms that define this water-air connection, as a means to build our understanding of the biogeochemical, biogeographical, and public health implications of the transfer of surface water materials to the near-shore environment in both urban and non-urban environments. The effects of tidal height, wind speed and fog on coastal aerosols and microbial cont...
Microbes in the atmosphere (microbial aerosols) play an important role in climate and provide an ecological and biogeochemical connection between oceanic, atmospheric, and terrestrial environments. Despite the ubiquity of these bacteria... more
Microbes in the atmosphere (microbial aerosols) play an important role in climate and provide an ecological and biogeochemical connection between oceanic, atmospheric, and terrestrial environments. Despite the ubiquity of these bacteria (concentration estimates range from 1 x 10^4 to 6 x 10^5 cells m-3), much is still being learned about their source, viability, and interactions with climatic controls. They can be attached to ambient aerosol particles or exist singly in the air. They affect climate by serving as ice, cloud, and fog nucleators, and have the metabolic potential to alter atmospheric chemistry. Fog presence in particular has been shown to greatly increase the deposition of viable microbial aerosols in both urban and coastal environments, but the mechanisms behind this are not fully understood. To address this gap, we examined the diversity of culturable microbial aerosols from a relatively pristine coastal environment in Maine (USA) and determined the effect of fog pres...
Research Interests:
In addition to efforts aimed at reducing anthropogenic production of greenhouse gases, geological storage of CO2 is being explored as a strategy to reduce atmospheric greenhouse gas emission and mitigate climate change. Previous studies... more
In addition to efforts aimed at reducing anthropogenic production of greenhouse gases, geological storage of CO2 is being explored as a strategy to reduce atmospheric greenhouse gas emission and mitigate climate change. Previous studies of the deep subsurface in North America have not fully considered the potential negative effects of CO2 leakage into shallow drinking water aquifers, especially from a microbiological perspective. A test well in the Newark Rift Basin was utilized in two field experiments to investigate patterns of microbial succession following injection of CO2-saturated water into an isolated aquifer interval, simulating a CO2 leakage scenario. A decrease in pH following injection of CO2 saturated aquifer water was accompanied by mobilization of trace elements (e.g. Fe and Mn), and increased bacterial cell concentrations in the recovered water. 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequence libraries from samples collected before and after the test well injection were compared to ...