A between-river comparison of extracellular-enzyme activity

River-water extracellular-enzyme activity in the lowland Rivers Ouse and Derwent, northeast England, had much in common. In both rivers, the mean enzyme activities over 15 months differed in the following order: leucine aminopeptidase > phosphatase > β-D-glucosidase > β-D-galactosi-idase and β-D-xylosidase. None of the five enzymes assayed had significant between-river difference in activity, and there was significant between-river correlation of β-D-glucosidase, phosphatase, and leucine-aminopeptidase activity. The common enzyme regimes were probably more due to between-river similarity of planktonic microbiota than to similar physico-chemical conditions. The potential for glucose uptake by bacterioplankton closely followed β-D-glucosidase activity in magnitude and periodicity. The potential for leucine uptake, however, was much less than leucine-aminopeptidase activity; hence rate of leucine release probably did not limit leucine uptake. There was an appreciable and highly variable proportion of free (<0.2 μm) enzyme activity in river water; ranges were β-D-glucosidase 10–30%, phosphatase 53% to apparently 104%, and leucine aminopeptidase 22–98%. These free enzymes did not necessarily originate from planktonic microbiota and may explain the fairly loose coupling between whole-water enzyme activity and microbial variables. Marked downstream increase in enzyme activity, along about 104 km of the River Derwent, was found on only one of three sampling days; hence the single site used for regular sampling was reasonably representative of most of the river.