Temporal variation in the specific growth rate of bacterioplankton in the River Cauvery and its four down stream tributaries in Karnataka State, India

The temporal variation in the Specific Growth Rate (SGR) of natural population of heterotrophic bacterioplankton of the river Cauvery and its four down stream tributaries in Karnataka State was monitored over a period of two years from February 2000 to January 2002. The SGR was calculated by taking into account only the abundance of bacterioplankton at the beginning (0 h) and at the end (48 h) incubation period, at room or river temperature. The mean SGR was less and significantly different in the surface waters of river Kapila, Shimsha, Suvarnavathy and Arkavathy. But it was more and significantly different in river Cauvery when compared to other tributaries. This suggests that the river Cauvery was more favorable habitat for SGR of bacterioplankton than the other four watercourses studied. Investigation of interrelationship between SGR and other bacterial variables showed presence of only one correlation with direct counts of particle bound bacteria in river Arkavathy. Further, the relationship between SGR of bacterioplankton and other environmental variables showed the presence of six correlations in river Shimsha, five in river Suvarnavathy, three in river Cauvery, and two each in river Kapila and river Arkavathy. Negative SGR were recorded on thirteen occasions in river Cauvery followed by eleven in river Shimsha, nine in river Suvarnavathy, seven in river Arkavathy and five in river Kapila, out of fifty SGR determinations. This negative SGR were a result of decrease in the observed bacterial cell counts after 48 h incubation from that of 0 h count. The probable reason for such negative growth rate and dependency of SGR of bacterioplankton and environmental variables has been discussed.