A temporal study of the bacterial ut~lisation of allochthonous dissolved organic carbon (DOC) was performed in a lake and estuary situated in the same boreal watershed.A greater utilisation of allochthonous DOC was observed under estuanne as compared to h ~n i c conditions.However, the bacterial biomass yleld was not significantly d f e r e n t between the environments, indicating a lower growth efficiency on allochthonous DOC by the estuanne bacterioplankton.The largest fraction of the aUochthonous DOC utilised (20%) was observed under estuarine conditions and coincided with the spring flood.The utilisation of allochthonous DOC and bacterial biomass yield in the expenmental bottles was limited by the availability of nitrogen or phosphorus in both environments.Our results showed that the major bacterial transformation of DOC occurred in the estuarine rather than the lirnnic environment, due to the shift in physicochemical milieu and bacterial assemblage.However, the estuarine bacteria also respired a greater fraction of the DOC utilised than their limnic counterparts.
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Wikner et al. (1999) studied this question.