Abstract
Bacteria in sea water are frequently attached to suspended solids. These bacteria probably have several trophic roles. As well as the obvious one of heterotrophic degradation of organic matter, they are implicated in the incorporation of dissolved organic compounds into particulate matter (Paerl, 1974) and they might serve as a food source to grazing zooplankton (e.g. Heinle and Flemer, 1975; Heinle et al., 1977; Lenz, 1977a). It is sometimes asserted that most bacteria in sea water are attached to suspended solids (Wood, 1953; Seki and Kennedy, 1969; Seki, 1970, 1972). Direct microscopic counts, however, do not show that attached bacteria are, as a general rule, more abundant than free bacteria; e.g. (1) Wiebe and Pomeroy (1972) found that >80% of bacteria were free at open– ocean stations in the Antarctic, although attached bacteria were more abundant at N. American coastal and estuarine sites; (2) Taga and Matsuda (1974) found that free bacteria usually exceeded attached bacteria in both oceanic and coastal waters in the Pacific; (3) Zimmermann (1977) found that attached bacteria in the Kiel Bight (Baltic Sea) made up only 3–8% of total bacteria.
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© 1981 Plenum Press, New York
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Goulder, R., Bent, E.J., Boak, A.C. (1981). Attachment to Suspended Solids as a Strategy of Estuarine Bacteria. In: Jones, N.V., Wolff, W.J. (eds) Feeding and Survival Srategies of Estuarine Organisms. Marine Science, vol 15. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-3318-0_1
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