Aerobic heterotrophic bacterial populations of sewage and activated sludge. V. Analysis of population structure and activity.

Two procedures, the confidence interval method and Mountford's index, were tested in analyses of the microbial populations of 11 laboratory activated sludges acclimated to aromatic compounds. The two methods gave somewhat different results but indicated that the populations were quite dissimilar. The activity of seven of the sludges correlated well with the population structure. Some considerations in analysis of microbial population structure are discussed.