Indoor Heating Drives Water Bacterial Growth and Community Metabolic Profile Changes in Building Tap Pipes during the Winter Season

Hai-Han Zhang, Sheng-Nan Chen, Ting-Lin Huang, Pan-Lu Shang, Xiao Yang and Wei-Xing Ma
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Hai-Han Zhang: School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an 710055, Shaanxi, China
Sheng-Nan Chen: School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an 710055, Shaanxi, China
Ting-Lin Huang: School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an 710055, Shaanxi, China
Pan-Lu Shang: School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an 710055, Shaanxi, China
Xiao Yang: School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an 710055, Shaanxi, China
Wei-Xing Ma: School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an 710055, Shaanxi, China

IJERPH, 2015, vol. 12, issue 10, 1-13

Abstract: The growth of the bacterial community harbored in indoor drinking water taps is regulated by external environmental factors, such as indoor temperature. However, the effect of indoor heating on bacterial regrowth associated with indoor drinking water taps is poorly understood. In the present work, flow cytometry and community-level sole-carbon-source utilization techniques were combined to explore the effects of indoor heating on water bacterial cell concentrations and community carbon metabolic profiles in building tap pipes during the winter season. The results showed that the temperature of water stagnated overnight (“before”) in the indoor water pipes was 15–17 °C, and the water temperature decreased to 4–6 °C after flushing for 10 min (“flushed”). The highest bacterial cell number was observed in water stagnated overnight, and was 5–11 times higher than that of flushed water. Meanwhile, a significantly higher bacterial community metabolic activity ( AWCD 590nm ) was also found in overnight stagnation water samples. The significant “flushed” and “taps” values indicated that the AWCD 590nm , and bacterial cell number varied among the taps within the flushed group ( p < 0.01). Heatmap fingerprints and principle component analyses (PCA) revealed a significant discrimination bacterial community functional metabolic profiles in the water stagnated overnight and flushed water. Serine, threonine, glucose-phosphate, ketobutyric acid, phenylethylamine, glycerol, putrescine were significantly used by “before” water samples. The results suggested that water stagnated at higher temperature should be treated before drinking because of bacterial regrowth. The data from this work provides useful information on reasonable utilization of drinking water after stagnation in indoor pipes during indoor heating periods.

Keywords: building indoor pipes; indoor heating; flow cytometry; BIOLOG (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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