Microbial Populations in Tropical Reservoirs Using Flow Cytometry
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 131, Issue 8
Abstract
Flow cytometry was applied in the study of bacteria and phytoplankton populations in five tropical reservoirs. Water quality between different reservoirs was compared and correlation analyses were carried out to investigate how the biomass of bacteria and phytoplankton related to other water quality parameters measured (i.e., temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, conductivity, water transparency, turbidity, chlorophyll , and total nitrogen and phosphorus). Average chlorophyll concentrations were typically greater than . Bacteria populations detected with flow cytometry were generally small in size (typically or equivalent spherical diameter) and contributed less than 13% of the total microbial biomass. Subpopulations of pico-, ultra-, and net phytoplankton were discriminated flow cytometrically by their red and orange autofluorescence. Cyanobacteria dominated four out of the five reservoirs in terms of numbers but only contributed more than 50% of the microbial biomass in two of the reservoirs. In general, local reservoirs were found to be phosphorus limited and alkaline conditions favored the growth of phytoplankton and bacteria.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 131 • Issue 8 • August 2005
Pages: 1187 - 1193
Copyright
© 2005 ASCE.
History
Received: Mar 30, 2004
Accepted: Nov 15, 2004
Published online: Aug 1, 2005
Published in print: Aug 2005
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