Landscape-Scale Factors Affecting the Prevalence of Escherichia coli in Surface Soil Include Land Cover Type, Edge Interactions, and Soil pH.

is deposited into soil with feces and exhibits subsequent population decline with concomitant environmental selection. Environmentally persistent strains exhibit longer survival times during this selection process, and some strains have adapted to soil and sediments. A georeferenced collection of isolates was developed comprising 3,329 isolates from 1,428 soil samples that were collected from a landscape spanning the transition from the grasslands to the eastern deciduous forest biomes.