The main objective of the ALERTERS project is to identify alternative microbial and antibiotic resistance indicators that allow an accurate assessment of the state of lotic ecosystems and possible sources of contamination.
The applicability of the proposed methods will be: i) verified by comparing the abundance of alternative indicators with that of pathogens and classical indicators of faecal contamination, and ii) validated by quantifying selected indicators from representative samples. In addition, the detectability and persistence of these alternative indicators will be assessed in the laboratory by microcosm experiments.