Water quality of Presque Isle State Park Steven Mauro, Ph.D. Associate Professor and Chair Department of Biology Mercyhurst University

What does it mean to have good water quality??? Adam Kessler (senior) and Ryan Hindman (graduate student, SUNY Buffalo), celebrate good quality water during a Mercyhurst funded sampling trip across the Great Lakes

Strategies for understanding and addressing water quality Determine what contaminants are present Determine if what is there is damaging the aquatic ecosystem or our health Develop ways to remove contaminant and follow up studies to determine success

Viruses and bacteria are the most abundant organisms on this planet Soil Soil Water Water The human body contains more bacteria or viruses that are either in us or on us than it does human cells!

Microbes can be good They sequester and recycle the majority of carbon on this planet and produce 25% of the worlds oxygen Microbes can be bad Viral and bacterial infectious to humans kill millions of people annually

We don’t want bad microbes in our water! Filter water through 0.45uM pore size filter Incubate filter on growth media specific for E. coli Count number of colonies We use E. coli levels as an indicator for the level of potentially bad bacterial types in our water

Strategies for understanding and addressing water quality Determine what contaminants are present Determine if what is there is damaging the aquatic ecosystem or our health Develop ways to remove contaminant and follow up studies to determine success E. coli research Almost everything else!

Potential chemicals of concern in Presque Isle waters Diuron: an herbicide that is carcinogenic and has impacts on human reproductive and developmental systems EE2: an estrogen that can cause chemical imbalance in aquatic species and humans Agricultural Industrial PCB: Industrial byproduct that can cause cancer and has impacts on immune, reproductive, nervous, and endocrine system Personal Triclosan: an anti-bacterial that can form carcinogenic compounds and is an endocrine disruptor Fluoxetine: an anti-depressant that can impact the life cycle of aquatic invertebrates

Sample locations Beach 10 Beach 6 Beach 2 Beach 1 Walnut Elk Lake Erie Shorehaven Spots

Testing for all chemicals was achieved by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay in 96-well plate format Chemical of concern Incubate water sample in a well with an antibody that will bind the chemical of concern Add antibody detection Antibody that also binds chemical of concern Add substrate and measure HRP induced color change in spectrophotometer and compare to standards

Fluoxetine is detected at all beach locations on all days tested!

Strategies for understanding and addressing water quality Determine what contaminants are present Determine if what is there is damaging the aquatic ecosystem or our health Develop ways to remove contaminant and follow up studies to determine success Fluoxetine detected

Overnight Culture Add fluoxetine to bacteria Measure bacterial levels in microplate reader

Fluoxetine inhibits growth of E. coli

Strategies for understanding and addressing water quality Determine what contaminants are present Determine if what is there is damaging the aquatic ecosystem or our health Develop ways to remove contaminant and follow up studies to determine success Fluoxetine detected and impact measured Hopeful future research

Special thanks to… Surafel Mulugeta- PharmD/PhD program (U. Illinois) Eric Clark- Senior accepted to Pharmacy School (Thomas Jefferson) Adam Olszewski- Medical School (Thomas Jefferson) Cody Smith- PhD student (Vanderbilt) Tim Wagner- Medical School (George Washington) Ryan Hindman- PhD studen (U. Buffalo) Environmental Protection Agency Pennsylvania Sea Grant Regional Science Consortium NOAA