Journal
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
Volume 655, Issue -, Pages 831-841Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.11.302
Keywords
Cemeteries; Human burial; Microbial communities; Functional metagenomics; Groundwater contamination; Public health
Categories
Funding
- South African Water Research Commission [K5/2449]
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Recent studies have identified cemeteries as potential environmental reservoirs of multi-drug resistant pathogenic bacteria that could contaminate groundwater sources posing public health threats. However, these findings were based on the identification of culturable bacteria and at times not belowburial grounds. Investigation on the bacterial diversity and functional profiles of bacterial communities above and below burial grounds in human cemeteries are few. The current study used high-throughput sequencing techniques to determine the bacterial composition and their associated functional profiles in cemetery soil samples collected at the surface and belowburial ground in two South African cemeteries (Maitland Cemetery in Cape Town and Fontein Street Cemetery in Middelburg) to evaluate the potential health threat to surrounding populations through contamination of groundwater. Significant differences were observed between sample depths with the clustering of the surface (0 m) and the 2 m samples into separate groups. Pseudomonas and Corynebacterium were the most abundant genera across all samples. Pseudomonas and Rhodococcus were the dominant genera in the 2 m samples while Prauserella and Staphylococcus were dominant in the surface samples. The 2msamples showed a lower alpha diversity but recorded higher proportions of human diseases functional classes compared to the surface samples. Human disease functional profiles revealed involvement, in infectious (cholera), neurodegenerative (Alzheimer's disease) cardiovascular (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy) immune system(Systemic lupus erythematosus) metabolic (Type I & II diabetes) diseases and cancer. Antibiotic resistance and antibiotics synthesis signatures were also identified. Thus, cemeteries could be potential sources of microbial and antibiotic pollution in groundwater, especially in areas with shallow water tables such as Maitland. Selection of sites for use as cemeteries should, therefore, require a proper understanding of the hydrogeological characteristics of the selected site. However, further studies are required to trace the actual movement of these pollutants into groundwater resources. (c) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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