Heterotrophic bacterial guild structure: Relationship to biodegradative populations.

Numerical taxonomic analysis of a freshwater bacterial guild demonstrated that the bacteria capable of growth on phenanthrene and polychlorinated biphenyl media were representative of the taxa obtained from low nutrient oligotrophic media. The diversity of heterotrophic bacteria and members of new taxa recovered from the guild followed a poisson distribution relative to the number of isolation media used. Moderately high nutrient, yeast extract peptone and glucose agar was found to be the most selective isolation medium relative to the total number of taxa recovered whereas low nutrient, lake water agar was the least selective medium used. Carbon source utilization patterns of the isolated taxa indicated that taxa within the guild had broad niche ranges and could potentially occupy many niches within a dynamic environment. The structure of the bacterial guild was dominated by mesophilic oligotrophs.The results of this investigation demonstrate that potential biodegradative populations are representative of the diverse taxa found in uncontaminated freshwater environments.