The impact of eutrophication towards selected bacterial process rates in tropical coastal waters

• Main Authors: Lim, Joon Hai, Lee, Choon Weng, Bong, Chui Wei, Kudo, Isao
• Format: Article
• Published: Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd 2021
• Subjects: QH301 Biology
• Online Access: http://eprints.um.edu.my/26670/

The dissolved organic nutrient conditions and bacterial process rates at two tropical coastal sites in Peninsular Malaysia (Port Klang and Port Dickson) were initially studied in 2004-2005 period and later revisited in 2010-2011. We observed that dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) increased about two- and ten-fold at Port Klang and Port Dickson, respectively and resulted in a significant change in DOC:DON ratio (t 0.05). Among the bacterial processes measured, bacterial respiration (BR) was lower in the 2010-2011 period at both stations (t 0.01). BR also correlated to the DOC:DON ratio (R2 0.259, p < 0.01). The increase in substrate quality enabled the bacteria to respire less in the dissolved organic matter degradation. As a result, the average bacterial growth efficiency increased slightly in the 2010-2011 period.