Enumeration and Characterization of Bacteria Indigenous to a Shallow Water‐Table Aquifer

Abstract

Regions of the earth below the root zone of soil have conventionally been considered void of life. However, widespread pollution of ground water in the U.S. by organic compounds has kindled interest in the numbers of microbes that might be found in aquifers and associated regions of the deeper unsaturated zone, and in their ability to degrade organic pollutants. Newly developed techniques in microbial ecology allow the direct enumeration and examination of soil microbes without recourse to their cultivation on growth media. These techniques reduce many uncertainties associated with the use of culture media, such as the growth of contaminants or the failure of indigenous forms to grow on a particular medium. Samples were recovered aseptically from depths of 1·2, 3·0, and 5·0 meters (m) at the margin of a small floodplain near Lula, Oklahoma. Depth to the water table was 3·6 m; depth to bedrock was 6·0 m. Numbers of microbes were surprisingly similar at all three depths (3 to 9 × 10 6 /g dry material). Although both Gram‐positive and Gram‐negative bacteria were encountered, small Gram‐positive coccoid forms predominated. No protozoa, yeasts, or other fungi were seen. The indigenous bacteria could rapidly degrade toluene. Chlorobenzene was degraded in material from the vadose zone, while bromodichloromethane was degraded in material from the saturated zone. There was no detectable degradation of 1,2‐dichloroethane, 1,1,2‐trichloroethane, trichloroethylene, or tetrachloroethylene.