Chapter 4 



Distribution and Function 

 of Marine Bacteria 



F. R. Hayes 



Ahe present section of the Symposium set out to consider 

 the distribution of bacteria in the world oceans and in special situ- 

 ations therin; to describe some special substrate capacities peculiar 

 to the marine environment, and to introduce arctic microbiology. 

 On the last mentioned topic, only two papers have been forth- 

 coming, one on the successions of microorganisms in the extreme 

 Soutli, and the other on successions of phytoplankton in Northern 

 zones. There is also a paper on sub-arctic sediments. Evidently 

 what we call in Canada "the vision of the North" has not yet 

 generated large numbers of research publications in microbiology. 

 The opening paper of the meeting was submitted by Pro- 

 fessor Kriss of the Institute of Microbiology, Moscow (Chapter 

 46), who sent regrets that, owing to ill health, he was unable to 

 come in person. His paper was on the immediate tasks of marine 

 microbiology, which has seriously lagged behind other oceano- 

 graphical disciplines. A major failure has been the basing of work 

 on isolated stations with limited forays, instead of traversing 

 world oceans at all seasons and with vertical as well as horizontal 

 distribution studies. Studies of standing crops of microbial popu- 

 lation must be supplemented by quantitative information on rate 

 of reproduction which has hitherto been unobtainable in the open 

 habitat. However, Kriss and his associates have now worked out 

 a method to measure this. Hence it is now possible to elucidate 

 the process of turnover of living microbial matter, the mineraliza- 

 tion rate and the utilization of microorganisms by acquatic ani- 

 mals. For example, in the Caspian Sea about half of the microbial 

 cells found in the mud are digested by Nereis during the passage 

 of mud through the alimentary tract of that worm. This is a link 



40 



