Abstract |
Laboratory salt-marsh environments were treated with malathion, an organophosphate insectide, and aerobic heterotrophic bacteria were monitored to determine changes in their microbial ecology. Several physiological activities were assayed in both treated and untreated controls; however, no reliable trends in numbers of these microorganisms were detected. Populations of malathion sole-carbon-degrading bacteria increased significantly with increasing treatment levels and in the sediments with repeated treatment. Malathion cometabolizing bacteria increased significantly over the control systems in the water column with increasing treatment levels. Although numbers of malathion-degrading bacteria increased with higher treatment levels or frequency of treatment, these changes had no effect on the total numbers of bacteria from the water or sediment. When an organochlorine insecticide, mirex, was used to treat the ecosystems, essentially no changes in the bacterial populations were detected. |