Assessment of physicochemical and microbiological water quality and bacterial biofilm formation in the coastal waters of Çanakkale, turkey

This study, it was aimed to determine water quality based on the physicochemical and microbiological parameters, as well as microbial indicators (in addition to antibiotic-heavy metal resistance and biofilm formation) in Çanakkale Coastal waters, Turkey. The results showed that the stations were within acceptable limit values in terms of general sanitation values, however, the isolated bacteria showed high antibiotic and heavy metal resistance and biofilm formation capacity. A total of 68 Gram negative bacterial isolates were collected from the Çanakkale coastline, and were recorded as Aeromonadaceae, Burkholderiaceae, Enterobacteriaceae, Plesiomonodaceae, Pseudomonadaceae, Shewanellaceae and Vibrionaceae. The highest antibiotic resistances were detected against cephalothin, erythromycin, cefoxitin antibiotics from all bacterial isolates. Frequency of resistance of isolated bacteria against heavy metals (Cu2+, Cd2+, Cr3+, Pb2+ and Mn2+) were detected as averages of 67.64%, 60.29%, 86.76%, 79.41% and 92.64%, respectively. Sixty bacterial isolates also exhibited strong biofilm formation. This study demonstrated that the coastal waters of Çanakkale represented a rich source of bacterial diversity and high incidence of antibiotic and heavy metal resistance and biofilm formation among isolated bacteria. It is expected that this study will lead to more comprehensive researches to investigate microbial quality in terms of public health in coastal waters and seafood in the region.