Categories
vol-24ENUMERATIONAND BIOMASS OF BACTERlALI1VDICATOR
SAPROPHYTIC COMMUNITY IN ALEXANDRIA COASTAL
WATER
By
E. E. SIAM*
*National Institute ofOceanography and Fisheries, Alexandria, Egypt.
Ke)’ words: Biomass, Bacteriology, Mediterranean, Egypt.
ABSTRACT
Samples from Alexandria coastal l1’ater were surveyed monthly
during 1995 at nine different sites.’ Allochthonous dischaYges of
rainfall and also domestic sewage have considerable effects on the
. distribution of bacterial communities. Microbial assessment was
carried out in a total of108 samples. Total andfeacal cOliforms, the
saprophytic bacteria as well as total bacterial counts and biomass
were determined. The use ofdiscriminant function analysis depending
on some biological andphysiochemical variables led to differentiate
the water environment into four characterized seasons. The highly
effective parameters were temperature, dissolved oxygen, total
bacterial numbers, saprophytic bacteria and NIP ratio. In general,
the bacterial flora of the coastal water was markedly affected by
water temperature. Bacterial number and saprophytic bacterial
density showed the same trend allover the year (fluctuated between
0.7 and 5 xl06 eel/simI and l. 7 and 6.6 xl’; eel/simI respectively).
Twenty-three percent of the examined samples were fou’¥1 to be free
from feacal bacteria. The bacterial biomassfell in the range of17 to
824.3 JJ g c rI .
