Mortality of fecal bacteria in seawater

Journal Article · Fri Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 1991 · Applied and Environmental Microbiology; (United States)

OSTI ID:5382463

Garcia-Lara, J; Menon, P; Servais, P; Billen, G ^[1]

---

1. Univ. Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels (Belgium)

The authors propose a method for determining the mortality rate for allochthonous bacteria released in aquatic environments without interference due to the loss of culturability in specific culture media. This method consists of following the disappearance of radioactivity from the trichloracetic acid-insoluble fraction in water samples to which ({sup 3}H)thymidine-prelabeled allochthonous bacteria have been added. In coastal seawater, they found that the actual rate of disappearance of fecal bacteria was 1 order of magnitude lower than the rate of loss of culturability on specific media. Minor adaptation of the procedure may facilitate assessment of the effect of protozoan grazing and bacteriophage lysis on the overall bacterial mortality rate.

• OSTI ID: 5382463
• Journal Information: Applied and Environmental Microbiology; (United States), Vol. 57:3; ISSN 0099-2240
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
PATHOGENS
MORTALITY
SEAWATER
WATER QUALITY
BACTERIOPHAGES
CULTURE MEDIA
PROTOZOA
THYMIDINE
TRACER TECHNIQUES
TRITIUM COMPOUNDS
ANIMALS
AZINES
ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
HETEROCYCLIC COMPOUNDS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
INVERTEBRATES
ISOTOPE APPLICATIONS
MICROORGANISMS
NUCLEOSIDES
NUCLEOTIDES
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PARASITES
PYRIMIDINES
RIBOSIDES
VIRUSES
WATER
540311* - Environment
Aquatic- Basic Studies- Radiometric Techniques- (1990-)