[The count and distribution of saprophytic bacteria and bacteria of the E. coli group in the water of Odessa Bay and the adjacent waters].

Abstract

The quantity and distribution of heterotrophic and enteric bacteria as indicators of the human activity influence on the marine ecosystem have been studied in water thickness of the Odessa Bay. It has been established that in the late autumn period the average quantity of heterotrophic bacteria in Bay waters is 6500 cells/ml and the number of the enteric ones--2400 cells/l. The spatial distribution of the heterotrophic bacterioplankton was mosaic and a tendency to decrease their quantity while moving away from the shore was not observed. This indicated the absence of the shore flow influence on the distribution of heterotrophic bacteria. On the contrary, the number of enteric bacteria significantly decreased with an increase of the distance from the shore, but on the greater part of the Bay they were absent at all. As to the vertical distribution of the heterotrophic bacteria quantity their maximum was in the water layer (0.5) below the surface, whereas the distribution of enteric bacteria did not correspond to this rule. Proceeding from the number of heterotrophic bacteria in the late autumn period waters of the Odessa Bay can be characterized as mesoeutrophic and according to the value of coli-index--as mesosaprobic ones.