Chapter 50 



Distribution of Heterotrophic Bacteria 

 in Some Seas of the Mediterranean Basin 



M. N. LebedevAj E. J. Anitchenko 

 and J. A. Gorbenko 



Xlie Mediterranean Sea is one of the most poorly explored 

 basins in regard to microbiological research, altlioiigli investiga- 

 tions were begun there at the end of the last century. The Ad- 

 riatic Sea has been studied most completely. Researches being 

 carried out by some scientists in Italy, France and Spain mainly 

 concern the study of microflora of the coastal regions of the 

 west part of the basin. The literature does not reveal any mi- 

 crobiological study of the Aegean Sea, the Sea of Crete, the 

 Ionian Sea and the Levant Sea. Except for the Adriatic Sea, such 

 microbiological counts as exist are single observations made many 

 years ago; they do not give an adequate picture of the develop- 

 ment of bacterial life in the open regions of the Mediterranean 

 Basin. 



MATERIAL AND METHODS 

 During the oceanographic researches carried out for the 

 International Geophysical Year from July 17 to October 9, 1959, 

 in the Mediterranean Sea by the Sevastopol Biological Station of 

 the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R. on board the ships ACA- 

 DEMICIAN KOVALEVSKY and ACADEMICIAN VAVILOV, 

 Institute of Oceanology, Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R., 

 the quantitative distribution of heterotrophic bacteria at different 

 depths of the water mass was studied. Stations were in the open 

 regions of the following seas: The Sea of Crete (3 stations), the 

 Levant Sea (21), the central part of the Mediterranean (13), 

 the Ionian Sea (7), the Tyrrhenian Sea (10), the Oti-anto Strait 

 (3) and in the Strait of Tunis (6). (See Fig. 1.) Samples were 

 obtained with a bathometer from standard hvdrological liorizons 

 (0, 10, 25, 50, 75, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 400, 500, 750, 1000, 



549 



