U.S. Geological Survey Toxic Substances Hydrology Program--Proceedings
of the Technical Meeting, Colorado Springs, Colorado, September 20-24, 1993,
Water-Resources Investigations Report 94-4015
  
Overview of Research on the Distribution and Role of Protozoa
in an Organically Contaminated Aquifer at Cape Cod, Massachusetts
by
Nancy E. Kinner (Dept. of Civil Engineering, Univ. of New Hampshire,
Durham, N.H.) and Ronald W. Harvey (U.S. Geological Survey, Boulder, Colo.)
Abstract
The distribution, nature, and role of protozoa that inhabit
contaminated and uncontaminated ground water were investigated
at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Cape Cod Toxic-Substances
Hydrology Research Site. New information has included identification
of large protozoan populations (up to 105/gram dry weight)
in anoxic zones of the aquifer; a lack of correlation between
dissolved oxygen concentrations and protozoan abundance or degree
of encystment; a strong relation among concentrations of dissolved
organic carbon, phosphate, sulfate, nitrate, numbers of
free-living bacteria (FLB) and protozoa; and a ratio of
FLB to protozoa that is 10-100 times lower than that typically
found in other aqueous environments. An improved direct-counting
procedure has allowed more accurate enumeration of protozoa in
sandy, aquifer sediments than was previously possible.
|
|
