A method is proposed which provides a minimum estimate of the rate of bacterial mortality in growing natural populations of planktonic bacteria. This estimate is give by the rate of decrease of radioactivity from the DNA of a [3H]thymidine-labeled natural assemblage of bacteria after all added thymidine has been exhausted from the medium. Results obtained from river water, estuarine water, and seawater show overall bacterial mortality rates in the range of 0.010 to 0.030 h-1, in good agreement with the range of growth rates measured in the same environments. Use of selective filtration through Nuclepore filters (pore size, 2 µm) allowed us to determine the contribution of microzooplankton grazing to overall bacterial mortality. Grazing rates estimated by this method ranged from 0 to 0.02 h-1.
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