Distribution of urea-decomposing bacteria in waters of lake suwa

The present study deals with the distribution of free and attached urea-decomposing bacteria in waters of Lake Suwa, one of the typical eutrophic lakes in Japan.Urea-decomposing bacteria are proved to be not an exceptional population among the populations of the heterotrophic bacteria studied. The percentage of attached urea-decomposing bacteria versus attached heterotrophic bacteria seems to be higher than that of free urea-decomposing bacteria versus free heterotrophic bacteria. Based on the assumption that most bacterial ureases are inducible ones, it is inferred that their ureases may not be induced under a such degree of urea concentration as is generally encountered in natural waters.