Biodiversità microbica in Mar Mediterraneo Centro-Orientale

Marine bacteria have been increasingly investigated in the last years but our knowledge of microbial communities and activities distribution in bathypelagic waters is ultil non satisfying. This short paper reports the first results of a large scale research on microbial distribution in a wide pelagic area of central-eastern Mediterranean sea, carried out in November 2004 form south-west of Crete to the western boundary of Sicily straits by a composite research group. New studies on the hydrology of this basin showed a very high variability on water masses distribution if compared to classical knowledge and bacteria could be play the role of marker to know the history of a water body.