Diversity of Culturable Bacteria and Meiofauna in the Epikarst of Škocjanske jame Caves (Slovenia)

Epikras postaja pomembno mesto hidrogeoloških, geomorfoloških in bioloških raziskav. Iz vzorcev pobranih s štirih mest v Škocjanskih jamah, kjer stalno kaplja voda z jamskega stropa, smo identifi cirali meiofavno. Na istih mestih so bili odvzeti tudi vzorci za izolacijo bakterij. Podatke o številu viabilnih celic smo dopolnili z morfološkimi in biokemijskimi lastnostmi izolatov. Izsledki kažejo, da v vzorcih prenikle vode iz epikrasa med bakterijami, ki jih lahko gojimo v in vitro razmerah, prevladujejo po Gramu negativne bakterije. The epikarst zone becomes an important site for hydrogeological, geomorphological and biological investigations. From the samples at four sites in Škocjanske jame caves where water tricklets constantly drip from the cave ceiling the meiofauna were identifi ed. The sites were screened also for the presence of culturable bacteria. The viable cell counts were supplemented with morphological and biochemical analysis of the isolates. Results show that Gram–negative bacteria prevail among culturable bacteria in the percolating epikarst waters.