## 4 Conclusions  
This study investigated the spatial and temporal patterns of _L. monocytogenes_ and _S. enterica_ using data at four sites (two stream and two pond sites) in the Mid-Atlantic United States over two years. The empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis presented the spatial patterns of both pathogen levels and rainfall amounts. A single dominant pattern was found for _L. monocytogenes_ levels across these sites. Spatial patterns of _L. monocytogenes_ were more clearly identified and appeared closely related to land use type; however, _Salmonella enterica_ levels across the sites were explained by a more complex relationship between rainfall and _S. enterica_ levels, where the variations in pathogen levels closely tracked variations in rainfall. Uncovering spatial patterns of pathogens variability is worthwhile for monitoring locations to investigate microbial water quality among irrigation water sources. The following supporting information can be downloaded at: [[https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/app12157526/s1](https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/app12157526/s1)]([https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/app12157526/s1](https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/app12157526/s1)), Table S1: Distribution of land use/land cover type (%) across sampling locations; Table S2: Rainfall amounts (mm) for the one day (Rain1) or seven days (Rain7) preceding sampling events for S. _enterica_ or _L. monocytogenes_ at four sites. Conceptualization, Y.P. ; methodology, S.K., Y.P. and M.S. ; formal analysis, S.K. and Y.P. ; investigation, S.K. ; resources, M.P., M.N.-A., S.A.M., R.E.R.G., F.H., S.P., A.S., A.R.S. and A.S.; data curation, M.P. and M.N.-A. ; writing--original draft preparation, S.K. ; writing--review and editing, Y.P., M.S., M.N.-A., K.K., S.A.M., R.E.R.G., F.H., S.P., A.S. and A.S.; supervision, Y.P. and M.S. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. This work was funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service Project \"Improving Pre-harvest Produce Safety through Reduction of Pathogen Levels in Agricultural Environments and Development and Validation of Farm-Scale Microbial Quality Model for Irrigation Water Sources\" (8042-42610-001-000-D) and USDA NIFA Grant 20166800725064 project CONSERVE (Coordinating Nontraditional Sustainable watER Use in Variable climaticEs): A Center of Excellence at the Nexus of Sustainable Water Reuse, Food and Health (www.conservewaterforfood.org), USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Not applicable. * [PERSON] et al. (1999) [PERSON]; [PERSON]; [PERSON]; [PERSON]; [PERSON] The impact of sediment fecal coliform reservoirs on seasonal water quality in Oak Creek, Arizona. _Water Res._**1999**, _33_, 2163-2171. [CrossRef]
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