Bioestimation: A new method for the control of water self-purification process and its comparison with bioindication

摘要

A new line in the studies of water bodies is proposed: the assessment and correction of the process of biotic purification of water (biological treatment and self-purification). The proposed approach is based on a principally new hydrobiological method of monitoring and control of water quality formation process-bioestimation. The principal novelty of bioestimation is due to the fact that it controls not the quality of the aquatic medium, but the object that has not been controlled before-water purification process and organic matter transformations in the process of vital activity of saprotrophic bacteria. Three critical groups of factors were found to govern the activity of these bacteria: the dynamic characteristics of the aquatic environment; the load on destructors in terms of organic matter; and the impact of substances, which are atypical of natural water and most often are discharged in it with industrial wastes. A group of indicator microorganisms-bioestimators-is chosen for each group of factors. The population size of such estimators can be used to identify and next eliminate the disturbing factor. The bioestimators are not species but ecological groups of microorganisms, commonly inhabiting any waters, either salt or fresh. Bioestimation also helps to identify disturbances in water purification process even in the cases where analyses of aquatic environment quality do not signal alarm. The proposed method is described and its major distinctions from the well-known hydrobiological method (bioindication in its original, saprobiological meaning) are demonstrated.