Isolation and partial characterization of bacterial strains on low organic carbon medium from soils fertilized with different organic amendments.

A total of 720 bacterial strains were isolated from soils with four different organic amendment regimes on a low organic carbon (low-C) agar medium (10 µg C ml(-1)) traditionally used for isolation of oligotrophs. Organic amendments in combination with field history resulted in differences in dissolved organic carbon contents in these soils. There were negative correlations between total and dissolved organic carbon content and the number of isolates on low-C agar medium, whereas these correlations were absent for bacterial strains isolated from the same soil on high-C agar medium (1,000 µg C ml(-1)).