GEOGRAPHIC REGULARITIES IN MICROBE POPULATION (HETEROTROPH) DISTRIBUTION IN THE WORLD OCEAN

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Abstract
Microbiological investigations in the Pacific, Indian, Atlantic, Arctic, and Antarctic Oceans, in the Norwegian and Greenland Seas (1954-1959) have embraced all geographic zones from the North Pole to the Antarctic. The high latitude regions of the world ocean (arctic and antarctic, subarctic and subantarctic) have the lowest microbe population (heterotroph) density. The heterotroph content is remarkably high in equatorial-tropic areas of the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans. While plant and animal life increase in abundance in the ocean water body with the transition off the equatorial-tropic area, the microbiol distribution, is characterized by a reverse phenomenon; the abundance of heterotrophs increases with the transition off the Polar areas to the equator. The cause of this disparity lies in the fact that in the world ocean equatorial-tropic zone the heterotroph abundance in waters is determined by high content of slightly transformed, not fully humified organic matter of allochthonous origin. The enrichment of waters in the equatorial-tropic zone of the Pacific and Indian Oceans by organic matter easily accessible to microorganisms chiefly takes place in the area of numerous islands rich in life in the Coral Sea and Australasian Archipelago regions; in the Atlantic Ocean this is conditioned by the discharge of the Amazon and Orinoco, Congo, and Nigar rivers which flow through spacious areas in equatorial America and Africa.
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