The journal Polar biology published a research article of Italian microbiologists article reporting the results of the study of the White Sea bacteria. They conducted this study using the material collected during the WSBS School on Marine Biology in 2008.
The reseachers isolated fifty-two bacteria strains from seawater collected from the Kandalaksha Bay littoral and sublittoral, in the WSBS vicinity. The bacteria were classified by 16S rDNA sequencing. Most of the strains belonged to ubiquitous microorganisms. The only typical bacterium of marine Arctic regions was Shewanella baltica. The strains were tested for their optimal growth temperature in the range 0–45°C. The majority appeared to be psychrotolerant (42%) or mesophilic-psychrotolerant (40%). In addition, one strain (Bacillus pumilus) showed a rather narrow mesophilic profile. No true psychrophilic bacteria were found. Most of the strains showed a classical curve with fast growth decrease above the optimum; some others displayed uncommon flat curves with scarce differences between maximum and minimum of growth in a wide range of temperatures. Moreover, few strains presented an unusual profile being, in relation to the optimum, more tolerant to high rather than low temperatures. Preferences of the Kandalaksha Bay strains are generally different from those reported in literature for the same species: optima were at lower temperatures and, sometimes, ranges were broader showing increased eurythermism.
You can read the article here: https://www.springerlink.com/content/k6242836165wn4k4/
and download it here: https://wsbs-msu.ru/dict/view.php?ID=174
