688 TANSEY AND FLIERMANS 



TABLE 4 



QUANTITATIVE RESULTS FOR CPU's OF Dactylaria 



gallopaua IN SELECTED SAMPLES COLLECTED 



AT THE SAVANNAH RIVER PLANT 



^Expressed as the sum of numbers of colonies on four plates at the indicated 

 sample dilution (e.g., 10— ) or amount (e.g., 0,1 cc). 



without developing disease (Emmons et al., 1977). It is not possible 

 to conclude from our data that the bodies of water studied are 

 mycopathologically safe or that they are hazardous. We can 

 conclude, however, that the concentrations of CFU's of pathogenic 

 thermophilic and thermotolerant fungi are very low in water in 

 comparison with those in the foam occurring on the water and in the 

 microbial mat and the soil at the water's edge. 



Our data indicate that the primary place for growth of D. 

 gallopaua at SRP is the microbial mat and subtending soil at the very 

 edge of thermal effluents and not the water, foam, or other sites 

 (e.g., sun-heated soil distant from the water's edge). Colony forming 

 units of D. gallopaua are high in number when this mat and 

 associated soil are plated (Table 4). The highest counts are obtained 

 from samples taken at the edge of the hottest water available. These 

 CFU's cannot be coming from water emerging from the reactor 

 (Table 1), the hottest foam (Table 2), the shore distant from the 

 effluent (Table 3), or the air. We could argue that CFU's of D. 

 gallopaua in water-edge mats and soils associated with cooler foam 

 and water arose from growth of jD. gallopaua in this foam. We do not 



