FUNCTIONAL DYNAMICS OF MICROBIAL POPULATIONS IN WATERS CONTAMINATED WITH PHENOLIC LEACHATE
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E. TALPSEP E. HEINARU J. TRUU T. LAHT A. HEINARU Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology Tartu University Tartu, Estonia |
H. WAND Department of Biotechnology University of Leipzig Leipzig, Germany U. STOTTMEISTER Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) Leipzig-Halle LTD Department of Remediation Research Leipzig, Germany |
| Spatial dynamics, abundance and the biodegradation potential
of aquatic microbial communities were studied during the period from November 1993 until
September 1995 in the Kohtla-Järve region of north-eastern Estonia. General trends in
bacterial population density profiles indicated that the microbial community and the heterotrophic,
lipolytic, denitrifying bacteria and biodegra- dative bacteria (phenol, m-toluate, benzoate, salicylate, camphor, naphthalene and heptane deg- rading bacteria) were strongly inhibited in the highly polluted waters with oil shale ash leachate effluent and the bacterial numbers increased as the pollution load decreased. Microbial communi- ties revealed significant adaptation to phenolic compounds in the environment, particularly the phenol and benzoate degraders. Distribution of phenol degraders showed remarkable similarity with the heterotrophic, lipolytic and denitrifying bacterial distribution pattern. The biodegradation potential rose throughout the rivers Kohtla and Purtse revealing a high natural selfpurification process. Correlation of environmental variables and bacterial groups was shown. Substrate utili- zation patterns as recorded with the BIOLOG GN system was used to assess metabolic dynamics of microbial communities and classifying the sampling sites according to their degradative potential. |