Isolation of Halophilic and Halotolerant Microorganisms from the Bakhtegan Lake and the Effect of Physicochemical Factors on Their Frequency

The lake in the protected Bakhtegan zone is the shelter to wildlife and very important from an ecological and environmental viewpoint. The lake has a unique diversity in terms of Halophilic and Halotolerant bacteria. Based on our experiments, from among the six genera of Halobacteriaceae, only the four Halobacterium, Haloarcula, Halococcus, and Haloferax genera were isolated, the greatest frequency (mean: 54%) belonging to Halobacterium and the least frequency (mean: 4%) belonging to Haloferax among the isolated genera. The Halotolerant bacteria isolated included Pseudomonas sp., Flavobacterium sp., Micrococcus sp. and Bacillus sp. genera. The greatest number of Halotolerant bacteria isolated from the lake water was Pseudomonas (mean: 72%). Furthermore, the number of total coliforms was greater than the number of fecal coliforms. Statistical analysis revealed that Halophilic and Halotolerant colonies had the same mean numbers only at Tashk and Gomban sampling sites but that the mean numbers obtained at Dehzir sampling site was significantly different from those obtained at the former two. It was also found that increasing salt concentration and pH level increased the number of halophilic colonies while increased levels of dissolved oxygen decreased their numbers. Salt concentration, pH level, and DO level had similar effects on the number of total and fecal coliform colonies