MICROBIAL DIVERSITY - NEW POSSIBILITIES OF AN OLD METHOD

Inoculation is usually regarded as an unsuitable method for the determ ination of actual ratios between microbial species in situ because any medium is inevitably selective. Nonetheless, in this work, analysis o f a vast sample of data obtained by differential counts of colonies on solid medium disclosed regularities in the structure of yeast communi ties that evidently could not have been revealed if the method used we re not reflective of actual interspecies relationships: orderly change s in the species diversity and character of rank distribution of relat ive species abundances in a spatial successional series and stability of the syntypological structure of yeast communities within the geogra phic zone boundaries. It is concluded that, under conditions of a stri ct statistical approach, the inoculation method is applicable for the determination of relative species abundances and quantitative estimate s of microbial diversity within the Limits of model microbial groups.