Introduction
Increased temperature as a stress factor in aquatic environments
has recently received much attention. Human population growth accompanied
by expanded demands for electrical energy has resulted in
increased construction of power generating facilities. Conventional
fossil fuel power plants are being built to produce many times the
electricity of those built in previous years. Nuclear power plants,
not economically feasible in small sizes, are being constructed to
generate even more electrical energy per unit than the new conventional
units. Nuclear power facilities produce heat less efficiently and,
thus, require approximately fifty percent more cooling per BTU than
usual methods (Kolflat, 1968). Increased exposure of populations
and communities of aquatic organisms to thermal pollution can thus be
anticipated when natural water systems are utilized as a cooling source.
The majority of research effort relative to the effects of heated
waste waters on aquatic systems has been directed towards macro- as
opposed to micro-organisms. While the use of microorganisms in general
pollution monitoring is not a nevi concept; for examples see Kolkwitz
and Marsson (1908); Butcher (1947); Fjerdingstad (1962), most of the
existing effort has been in the area of correlation of species to
various polluted situations. The major disadvantages of such approaches
as well as the use of populations and communities of microorganisms
in pollution monitoring are discussed in Cairns and Lanza (1971) and
Cairns, etc. (submitted)...
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