Kuzuryu-gawa extending to about 116km is the largest river in the Hokuriku district. There is a dam under construction in its upper course, from where a large amount of sand and gravel on the bottom has become accumulated in the middle and lower courses. The river water has become muddy and the river bed has been covered with silt in the middle and lower courses, where there receive also domestic wastes.
In this study, the quantity of silt covering the river bed was surveyed in regard to its effect on the attached microorganisms in the non-polluted as well as the polluted courses by organic matters.
1. The microorganisms attached to stones and other adequate materials were collected at the 17 stations chosen from the river courses in question, and were examined in the laboratory. The principal microorganisms found at each station are shown in Tables 2 and 4. Figure 2 shows the water quality map drawn on the basis of the biological assessment by the above-mentioned data of microorganisms.
2. In the oligosaprobic part of this river, standing crops of microorganisms at the stations 2 A and 4A, where the turbidity of water is low, are markedly larger than those estimated at the other stations. The standing crops at these two stations seem to indicate the original value for microorganisms in this river.
3. The river surveys across the stations 2, 3 and 4 made clear that the standing crops of microorganisms (represented by ignition loss) decreased and the quantity of silt covering the bed increased in proportion to the increase of turbidity (Table 3).
4. At the stations where the values of ignition loss were more than 35mg/25 cm2 in the oligosaprobic course,
Homoeothrix janthina was dominant. It is the most common blue-green alga at the riffle in oligosaprobic waters in Japan. Considering such a phenomenon, the environments at those stations are to be regarded as being normal to the attached microorganisms. At such stations, turbidity is lower than about 20 ppm and also the ratio of ignition loss to ignition residue is higher than 0.2 (Table 3).
5. At the stations from 5 to 10 in the β-mesosaprobic courses of this river, silt covering the bed is large in quantity, in spite of the comparatively low values of turbidity. The following assumption may be probable to explain this phenomenon. When the level of river water rises, silt deposited in the upper courses should be carried away to the lower courses, where the speed of water becomes slow and silt seems to be precipitated. In the lower course down from the station 8 where the dam is situated, the quantity of silt covering the bottom is comparatively small.
6. At the stations from 5 to 10 in the β-mesosaprobic courses, the quantity of attached microorganisms is not always small, though such a large quantity as measured in the upper courses could not be found (Table 3).
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