Ecological implications of biomass and morphotype variations of bacterioplankton: an example in a coastal zone of the Northern Adriatic Sea (Mediterranean)

This study had the objective of quantifying the variability in abundance, cell volume, morphology and C content of a natural bacterioplankton community in a coastal zone of the North Adriatic Sea during two periods (February and June) of two consequent years (1996 and 1997). We used epifluorescence microscopy with Acridine Orange staining procedures and a microphotographic technique. Low variability in bacterial abundance (range 0.3-3.1 x 10(5) cells ml(-1)) occurred between summer and winter periods. Conversely, the cell volume and the calculated carbon content changed greatly with warm and cold periods (ranges: 0.015-0.303 mu m(3) and 5.83-42.17 fg C cell(-1), respectively). Elongated bacteria were dominant while coccoid cells prevailed only in February 1997. Biomass showed high variability (range 0.12-10.21 mu g C l(-1)) whilst the abundance did not show noticeable differences among the sampling periods. As a consequence, quantification of bacterial biomass based solely on cell abundance must be considered with caution because the true biomass could depend on variability in cell volumes and morphotypes.