Microbial Ecology of the Floridan Aquifer near Okeechobee, FL: Uptake and Inactivation Data

Between 2018 and 2020 groundwater samples were collected from a SFWMD monitoring well located at a study site near Lake Okeechobee, Florida to conduct two types of experiments. The first was a nutrient uptake experiment where a standardized solution of nitrogen (KNO3), phosphorus (K2PO4) and carbon (Na-acetate) was added to each of the respective experimental solutions, then sampled over a period of time to quantify the rates at which the native planktonic and biofilm-associated bacteria removed these nutrients and either incorporated them into bacterial biomass and/or carbon dioxide. The data from the nitrogen removal experiments were generated on a Seal Analytical Auto Analyzer 3, while the data from the phosphorus and carbon uptake experiments were generated on a Perkin Elmer TriCarb liquid scintillation counter following the measurement of samples containing 32P (as phosphate) and 14C (as acetate).

Between January and October 2020 known concentrations of E. coli, bacteriophage MS2, human enterovirus polio, and Cryptosporidium parvum were added to filtered sterilized groundwater from the same SFWMD monitoring well used for the nutrient uptake experiments and described in the previous step. These solutions of microorganisms were then transferred to diffusion chambers that were suspended in a constant flow of groundwater within a mesocosm at the wellhead. Periodically, a diffusion chamber for each of the microorganisms was recovered from the mesocosm and processed for the recovery of each type of microorganism using methods specific to the recovery of that microorganism.