THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF ENTERIC BACTERIA IN THE JORDAN RIVER–LAKE KINNERET CONTACT ZONE

Abstract

Lake Kinneret, in the north of Israel, is the only freshwater body in the country. It supports many activities, including recreation, tourism, and a commercial fishing industry, but its prime function is to supply water to other parts of the country. Consequently, maintaining a high water quality of the lake is of prime importance. The major part (some 90%) of the annual runoff of water enters Lake Kinneret from the north via the Jordan River during the autumn–winter floods. During this period, the river carries sediments, toxic agricultural chemicals, and allochthonous organisms, including pathogenic bacteria, into the lake. The Jordan River–Lake Kinneret contact zone is characterized by a rapid transformation from a riverine to a lacustrine water mass within 700 m from the river mouth, with very high spatial gradients of practically all hydrodynamic, hydrophysical, hydrochemical, and microbiological parameters. Previous measurements have shown that the distribution of enteric bacteria in the river–lake contact zone is related to the attenuation of river current flows. The aim of this study was to determine whether the change in the number of enteric bacteria (fecal coliforms, Escherichia coli, and Klebsiella spp.) in the water of the River Jordan–Lake Kinneret contact zone was due to sedimentation or to dilution. The data were then utilized to build a conceptual model explaining the distribution of biological pollutants (bacteria) in the river–lake contact zone of a shallow tropical lake, using the microbial communities of the River Jordan–Lake Kinneret contact zone, as an example.

This research was partially supported by grant 96-00274 from the United States–Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF), Jerusalem, Israel.