Summary The impairment of water quality by faecal pollution is a global public health concern. Microbial source tracking methods help to identify faecal sources but the few recent quantitative microbial source tracking applications disregarded catchment hydrology and pollution dynamics. This quantitative microbial source tracking study, conducted in a large karstic spring catchment potentially influenced by humans and ruminant...

Summary Diel changes in bacterial and cyanobacterial numbers, as well as heterotrophic bacterial production, were examined in two shallow alkaline pools, harbouring dense populations of cyanobacteria (up to 1100 × 10 9 cells l −1 ) and bacteria (up to 500 × 10 9 cells l −1 ). Together with the recorded bacterial production rates (925 µgC l −1 h −1 ), these values are the highest reported for natural aquatic ecosystems. The inv...