The Distribution and the Protozoan Grazing Effect on the Survival of Bacteriological Indicators of Pollution at Discharge Polluted Marine Sediments

The monthly distribution of indicator bacteria were studied at the Black Sea exit of the Strait of Istanbul. The fecal coliform counts were lower than the fecal streptococci indicating that most of the culturable fecal coliform were lost. According to the sediment assays, the sediment microbiota consumed over 50 % of the fecal coliform and fecal streptococci. Although C. perfringens was also consumed by the predators, the counts during incubation period remained rather constant. According to these results, C. perfringens should be included to the sediment pollution monitoring studies since it has the highest survival rate.