Experimental concentration of aquatic microorganisms

Summary

Techniques are needed in aquatic biology for rapidly concentrating microorganisms from large volumes of water without affecting their integrety or activity. Several methods that utilize membrane filters in the concentration are discussed here. There is, however, a loss of both organisms and activity. Imperfect as they are now, these techniques may nonetheless be used to gain a great deal of information about the activities of microorganisms of the plankton. This is particularly true for extremely oligotrophic systems such as large lakes, open oceans, and polar and alpine lakes.