The abundance of general aerobic heterotrophic bacteria (GAB) from the water and sediment in the Bering Sea and the Chukchi Sea was determined by using petri dish cultivation and counting method. The abundance of GAB among the different sea area, sampling sites, layers of sediments surveyed and adaptability do differential temperatures was studied. The result obtained showed that: the occurrence percentage of GAB in the surface water was higher than that in sediment, but the abundance was only 0.17% of sediment. The occurrence percentage of GAB in surficial layer of sediment was higher than that in the other layers. The occurrence percentage, abundance and its variation of GAB in the Bering Sea were higher than that in the Chukchi Sea respectively. The average value of the abundance in the all sediment surveyed was 3166.3 * 10(2) CFU * g - 1(wet.). The abundance of GAB in sediment showed a trend: roughly higher in the lower latitudinal area than higher latitude. The results from temperature test mean that: the majority of bacteria tested were cold adapted ones, minority might be mesophilic bacteria. The results indicated that, Arctic ocean bacteria had a stronger adaptability to environmental temperature
