Table 1 Studies describing pathogen contamination in saline water (coastal and estuary environments)

Coastal water

Gerba and McLeod ([1976])

E. coli, fecal coliform

Longer survival in the sediment presence in seawater

Sediment influence on pathogen survival

Goyal et al. ([1977])

Total coliform, fecal coliform

Sediments of shallow canal can act as a reservoir

Pathogens distribution in water and sediment

Kapuscinski and Mitchell ([1983])

E. coli, bacteriophages

E. coli survives longer than bacteriophages

Survival of pathogens in sunlight

Rao et al. ([1984])

Enteroviruses (Polio and Rota)

Abundance viruses were attached with sediment

Viruses distribution in water and sediment

Weiskel et al. ([1996])

Fecal coliform

Waterfowl major source of fecal coliform inputs

Pathogen source and transport pathways

Sinton et al. ([1999])

Bacteria and Fecal bacteriophages

Somatic coliphages shown prolonged survival

Sunlight influence on sewage-polluted seawater

Solo-Gabriele et al. ([2000])

E. coli

Riverbanks as the primary pathogen source

Sources of pathogens on subtropical environment

Nasser et al. ([2003])

Cryptosporidium, viruses, E. coli

E. coli die-off was faster than other pathogens

Comparative survival of various pathogens

Schriewer et al. ([2010])

Bacteroidales, fecal indicator, protozoa, bacteria

Bacteroidales have shown higher predictive skill than fecal indicators

Bacteroidales as a predictor of pathogens in coastal water

Estuaries

Ketchum et al. ([1952])

Coliform, zooplankton

Sactericidal and predation caused coliform die-off

Processes responsible for pathogens decrease

Smith et al. ([1978])

Echovirus 1, coxsackieviruses

Sediment prolonged viruses survival

Persistence of pathogen viruses

Rhodes and Kator ([1990])

E. coli

Mortality rises in sunlight

Indigenous microbiota and sunlight influence

White et al. ([1998])

Perkinsus marinus

Use of Kriging analysis for disease prevalence

Use of GIS in pathogen distribution analysis

Lipp et al. ([2001])

Vibrio vulnificus

Salinity controls the distribution of pathogens

Distribution of human pathogens

Desmarais et al. ([2002])

E. coli, C. perfringens

Pathogens re-grown with tides and sterile sediment

Influence of soil on fecal indicator in tidally influenced environment

Frias-Lopez et al. ([2002])

Clostridium, Campylobacter, Arobacter

Pathogen partitioning was found in surface and overlying water

Bacterial communities partitioning between sea water, dead coral surface

Chandran and Hatha ([2005])

E. coli, Salmonella

E. coli shows better survival capacity than Salmonella

Relative survival in microcosm studies

Baker-Austin et al. ([2009])

Vibrio vulnificus

Prevalence of antibiotic resistance in a human pathogen

Multi-site analysis shows widespread antibiotic resistance in pathogens