Dr. Fereidoun Rezanezhad (member of the Ecohydrology Research Group and the Water Institute) co-authored a paper titled "Transport, retention, and release of Escherichia coli and Rhodococcus erythropolis through dry natural soils as affected by water repellency", which was recently published in Science of the Total Environment. The collaborative work between researchers from Canada, Germany, Iran, the U.K. and the U.S., found that the wetability of a soil (wettable vs. water-repellent) plays a key role in the fate and transport of pathogen contamination. Furthermore, the size and shape of bacteria, as well as their hydrophobicity, have implications for the risk they pose for contamination in natural soils and porewaters.
The full article can be found at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.133666