Microbial indication of pollution in the surface waters of Peter the Great Bay (Japan Sea) by heavy metals

Water quality is assessed in some coastal areas of Peter the Great Bay, Japan Sea, by means of microbial indication. In the areas polluted with heavy metals, the number of metal-resistant forms of bacteria in heterotrophic microbial communities varies in accordance with the type and degree of environmental pollution. The heightened numbers of metal-resistant microorganisms in the Amur, Ussuri, and Nakhodka Bays indicate a high degree of anthropogenic load. The heavy industrial pressure is recorded there more than 20 years in such sites as Cape Lagerny and Cape Firsov (at the mouths of Pervaya Rechka and Vtoraya Rechka Rivers in the Amur Bay) and Lazurnaya Bay (in the Ussuri Bay) and extends recently in the coastal area at Bolshoy Kamen (Ussuri Bay), at Cape Tokarevsky (Amur Bay) and Cape Petrovsky (Nakhodka Bay). The waters in the Far Eastern Marine Reserve in the southwestern Peter the Great Bay are quite clean, with the least industrial impact caused mainly by transboundary transfer of pollutants.