Effect of long-term lead exposure on the seawater and sediment bacteria from heterogeneous continuous flow cultures.

Lead-influenced changes of the composition of seawater and sediment bacteria were studied in two flow cultures run with lead-contaminated artificial seawater (1 mg Pb(2+)1(-1)) and one control culture. During the experiment viable counts of physiological groups of bacteria from the control culture were not significantly different from that of the lead-contaminated cultures. Lead tolerance of seawater and sediment bacteria strains was investigated. Comparisons of growth yields showed that lead tolerance of seawater and sediment bacteria was lost again if the bacteria were cultivated in a medium without lead. Lead tolerance could not be demonstrated for the sediment bacteria of one lead-contaminated culture. Heterotrophic uptake measurements with radioactive glucose indicated that seawater bacteria from the lead-contaminated cultures became adapted to lead pollution. The sediment bacteria, however, did not reveal lead tolerance by this method. Fluctuations in lead content of the sediment as well as of the overlying seawater gave indications of adsorption-desorption processes between seawater and sediment. Lead was not homogeneously distributed at the sediment surface.