RESUMO
This is the first comprehensive study on planktonic heterotrophic bacterial cell size in the river Cauvery and its important tributaries in Karnataka State, India. The initial hypothesis that the mean cell size of planktonic heterotrophic bacteria in the four tributaries are markedly different from each other and also from that in the main river Cauvery was rejected, because all five watercourses showed similar planktonic heterotrophic bacterial cell size. Examination of the correlation between mean heterotrophic bacterial cell size and environmental variables showed four correlations in the river Arkavathy and two in the river Shimsha. Regression analysis revealed that 18%of the variation in mean heterotrophic free-living bacterial cell size was due to biological oxygen demand (BOD)in the river Arkavathy, 11% due to surface water velocity (SWV)in the river Cauvery and 11% due to temperature in the river Kapila. Heterotrophic particle-bound bacterial cell size variation was 28% due to chloride and BOD in the river Arkavathy, 11% due to conductivity in the river Kapila and 8% due to calcium in the river Cauvery. This type of relationship between heterotrophic bacterial cell size and environmental variables suggests that,though the mean heterotrophic bacterial cell size was similar in all the five water courses, different sets of environmental variables apparently control the heterotrophic bacterial cell size in the various water bodies studied in this investigation. The possible cause for this environmental (bottom -up) control is discussed.