Hixon 1 Concentrations and identities of fecal coliform bacteria from ...

Location
Date of Sample
Data Source
Water Temp (°C)
pH
Salinity (ppT)
Dissolved Oxygen (mg/L)
Fecal coliform CFUs per 100mL
Bacteria CFUs per 100mL
Hixon 10
124 to 397 CFUs, with DR1 having the largest difference (table 1). The closest similarity among
COJ data values and those of the 1/29/11 and 3/12/11 collections were seen at the ARL3 sample
site, indicating there were no major flaws in experimental procedures giving reassurance that all
collected data was accurate. For both sample collections, the highest fecal coliform bacteria
concentrations were found at JU1 and LB1 with the exception of sample site ARL7 (table 1). All
sample locations had lower fecal coliform CFUs at the 3/12/11 collection compared to COJ fecal
coliform CFU data from February 2009 and data from the 1/29/11 collection (figure 2). Lower
fecal coliform CFUs at all sites for the 3/12/11 collection could be due to all the water samples
being collected before low tide causing them to be diluted while some of the 1/29/11 samples
were collected past low tide, the colder air and cold water temperatures for all samples could of
potentially not allowed the fecal coliform bacteria to replicate as efficiently (table 1), a
difference in tidal heights potentially causing the samples be diluted, a shorter incubation period
not allowing all the fecal coliform colonies to grow, or for some other reason not mentioned
here. In order to accurately determine the cause or causes of this difference more research would
need to be completed. All data for all sample collections and COJ data can be seen found in
table 1.