Why is it easier for bacteria to develop in stagnant water than in running water?
In: Biology
It’s more that it’s easier for bacteria to collect in one place and become ‘dense’ enough in a particular location to become a problem in stagnant water.
Just for the sake of this argument let’s pretend that you’ve got a collection of water on either side of you, one that’s just a sitting puddle, and one that’s a gently flowing stream. And at the same time you toss in a clump of bacteria into each one, and that each clump will reproduce and make a million new bacteria every minute, regardless of which water collection it’s in.
On the stagnant puddle side, as each minute goes by, there’s a million more bacteria, and they just keep “piling up” until the puddle can’t support anymore.
But on the flowing side, many of those bacteria are being swept away, and there’s a constant supply of clean water coming in and diluting what’s left.
A flowing water source isn’t really infinite, but it’s a lot more water than a completely static amount of water, so it’s going to be a lot harder to saturate with bacteria.
Running water is moving water. Neither the bacteria nor the nutrients the bacteria need are going to stay in the same place for any amount of time.
In standing water the bacteria and the nutrients are just sitting in one spot and that’s a recipe for rapid bacterial reproduction
So basically, bacteria need nutrients to survive and reproduce. Stagnant water provides a perfect breeding ground for bacteria because it doesn’t have any movement to disperse the nutrients and waste products. On the other hand, running water constantly flushes out the bacteria and their waste, making it harder for them to thrive.
All the answers so far are correct. But im gonna do an actual ELI5 cause this one is pretty obvious.
Sprinkle some pepper on still water. You can still see it there. It will stay there. It can now grow together.
Sprinkle some pepper on running water. Bye bye pepper.
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