screen of 7-10 m mesh. 



This method probably yields somewhat elevated values of production 

 and respiration of the bacterioplankton (approximately 20-40% high) in 

 water of the euphotic zone due to the elimination of consumers in the 

 preliminary filtration, but not due to the so-called "bottle effect." 

 This effect, described by ZoBell and Anderson (1936) results from the 

 fact in that when water is stored for a long period of time in small 

 bottles, intensive growth of heterotrophic bacteria begins. The 

 intensity of multiplication is higher in small bottles, which is 

 explained by the adsorption of organic matter onto the walls of the 

 flasks, making the organic matter more accessible for the microflora. 

 The observations of ZoBell long served as an argument against the use of 

 the bottle method for the study of the intensity of bacterial processes 

 in sea water (Steemann Nielsen, 1972; Banse, 1974); however, these 

 arguments are based on a misunderstanding. The plate count method used 

 in the experiments of ZoBell and Anderson considers only a small portion 

 of the microbial population of the sea water (<0.5%), which reacts more 

 rapidly than the remainder of the microflora to the death of planktonic 

 organisms in the samples. However, even for this small portion of the 

 microbial population, the flask effect appears only after 2 or 3 days of 

 exposure, whereas the standard exposure of bottled samples for 

 determination of the production of bacteria and phytoplankton is not 

 over 1 day. Many experiments have proven that there is no "bottle 

 effect" in the multiplication of the entire microbial population in 

 samples of natural water with exposures of up to 5 days at 20-25°C 

 (Vinberg, Yarovitsyna, 1946; Czeczuga, 1960; Godlevska-Lipova, 1969; 

 Romanenko, 1969). 



There are methods of indirect estimation of bacterial production. 

 One consists in determination of the time of generation of bacteria on 

 the basis of the rate of washing of a microbial population out of a 

 flowthrough cultivator (Jannasch, 1969). If we know the time of 

 generation of bacteria and their biomass, we can calculate the 

 production. Another method consists in the determination of the 

 increase in microflora in an isolated sample on the basis of the change 

 in the number of particles of a finely dispersed suspension, determined 

 by means of a Coulter counter (Sheldon et al . , 1973). 



The degree of aggregation of marine microflora is determined by 



microscopy in a phase-contrast or luminescent microscope (Wood, 1965) or 



by the dimensional composition of particles in the suspension, 



established by means of a Coulter counter. The method of labeling of 



natural bacterioplankton in water samples by small doses of ^^C-labeled 

 protein hydrolysate, with subsequent filtration on a filter with a pore 



diameter of 4-6 um, which retains bacterial clumps, is also used 

 (Sorokin, 1970b). 



In order to establish the sources of energy for bacterial 

 biosynthesis, we must comparatively evaluate the utilization of 

 autochthonous and allochthonous organic matter by the microflora. In 

 analyzing the energetics of a local ecosystem, it is important to obtain 

 data on the degree of utilization of external dissolved organic matter, 

 brought in by currents from other regions, since bacterial biomass thus 



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