{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,12]],"date-time":"2026-04-12T07:11:58Z","timestamp":1775977918109,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":20,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,6,4]],"date-time":"2023-06-04T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1685836800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Department of Science and Technology- Philippine Council for Health Research and Development"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Data"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Studying the quality of freshwater systems and drinking water in highly urbanized megalopolises around the world remains a challenge. This article reports data on the quality of select freshwater systems in Mega Manila, Philippines. Water samples collected between 2020 and 2021 were analyzed for physico-chemical parameters and microbial community metabolic fingerprints, i.e., carbon substrate utilization patterns (CSUPs). The detection of arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury, polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) was carried out using standard chromatography- and spectroscopy-based protocols. Physiological profiles were determined using the Biolog EcoPlate\u2122 system. Eight samples were free of heavy metals, and none contained PAHs or OCPs. Fourteen samples had high microbial activity, as indicated by average well color development (AWCD) and community metabolic diversity (CMD) values. Community-level physiological profiling (CLPP) revealed that (1) samples clustered as groups according to shared CSUPs, and (2) microbial communities in non-drinking samples actively utilized all six substrate classes compared to drinking samples. The data reported here can provide a baseline or a comparator for prospective quality assessments of drinking water and freshwater sources in the region. Metabolic fingerprinting using CSUPs is a simple and cheap phenotypic analysis of microbial communities and their physiological activity in aquatic environments.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/data8060103","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,6,5]],"date-time":"2023-06-05T01:53:25Z","timestamp":1685930005000},"page":"103","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Physico-Chemical Quality and Physiological Profiles of Microbial Communities in Freshwater Systems of Mega Manila, Philippines"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"8","author":[{"given":"Marie Christine M.","family":"Obusan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Microbial Ecology of Terrestrial and Aquatic Systems Laboratory, Institute of Biology, College of Science, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City 1101, Philippines"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6929-5407","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Arizaldo E.","family":"Castro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Microbial Ecology of Terrestrial and Aquatic Systems Laboratory, Institute of Biology, College of Science, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City 1101, Philippines"}]},{"given":"Ren Mark D.","family":"Villanueva","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Microbial Ecology of Terrestrial and Aquatic Systems Laboratory, Institute of Biology, College of Science, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City 1101, Philippines"}]},{"given":"Margareth Del E.","family":"Isagan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Microbial Ecology of Terrestrial and Aquatic Systems Laboratory, Institute of Biology, College of Science, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City 1101, Philippines"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6157-7749","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jamaica Ann A.","family":"Caras","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Microbial Ecology of Terrestrial and Aquatic Systems Laboratory, Institute of Biology, College of Science, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City 1101, Philippines"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7992-377X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jessica F.","family":"Simbahan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Microbial Ecology of Terrestrial and Aquatic Systems Laboratory, Institute of Biology, College of Science, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City 1101, Philippines"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,6,4]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4","DOI":"10.1186\/s41043-016-0041-5","article-title":"Water quality index for measuring drinking water quality in rural Bangladesh: A cross-sectional study","volume":"35","author":"Akter","year":"2016","journal-title":"J. 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