Spatial heterogeneity of the bacterial community in a newly rehabilitated wetland

We documented potential spatial differences within the aquatic bacterial co mmunity in a newly rehabilitated wetland. Replicate 10 meter transects were partitioned into four sites of various depths representing open water (>35 cm), water/ macrophyte interface (20-30 cm), a submersed macrophyte bed (1 0-25 cm), and a nearly dry (<5 cm) macrophyte stand. We isolated 30 bacteri al strains from the senescing plant/water interface from each site, and cha racterized the Gram stain and morphology across each transect. The majority of isolates (66.6%) were Gram negative, bacillus forms. Also, senescing ma tter from each site was collected and the ability of each set of isolates t o utilize each leachate was tested. The isolated bacteria exhibited a signi ficantly greater ability (p< 0.05) to utilize its co-occurring leachate tha n did bacteria from other sites within a transect.