Phosphate-accumulating bacteria in the wastewater of the perm industrial center

The influence of pH (2.8-7.9) on the number of phosphate-accumulating bacte ria (0-53% of the total number, which was 1 to 1300 million cells/ml as det ermined by direct counting) was studied against the background of fluctuati ons in the total phosphate content (0.03-890 mg/l) in the wastewater of the Perm industrial center. Volutin-containing cells were very rare (0-0.01%) in iron- and sulfur-rich aerated acidic waters (pH 2.8-4.6) with low phosph ate content, whose microbial community was dominated by acidophilic thionic bacteria. Neither were such cells abundant (0.1-19% of the total cell numb er) in phosphate-rich, poorly aerated biotopes (pH 6.7-7.6), where degradat ion of organic substances involved sulfate-reducing bacteria forming hydrog en sulfide (1.0-12.4 mg H2S/l). A large number of bacteria with intracellul ar metal polyphosphates (7-53% of the total cell number) was characteristic of transformed wastewaters, whose organic substances had undergone prelimi nary bio-degradation stages, and whose resulting simple compounds were cons umed primarily by aerobic saprophytic and acetate-oxidising bacteria includ ing those of the genus Acinetobacter, causing medium alkalization to pH val ues of 7.2-7.9.