Several biochemical methods for easy testing of the microbial turnover activity, the microbial biomass, and toxic effects of pollutants are presented. These methods are simple, quick, and cheap and can be performed in every laboratory with standard equipment. Some examples of application in water and groundwater control are described. The presented results show correlations between enzymatic activities and organic compounds, between enzymatic activities and biomass, and also the influences of surface water on groundwater, and biological water treatment. The application of the described biochemical tests is proposed for samples of the whole water cycle in order to get more information supplementary to classical biological and chemical investigations.

Enzymatic activities, DNA content, photometric and fluorometric methods, surface water, groundwater, water treatment
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© IWA Publishing 1988
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