There is a well-defined succession of micro-organisms which colonize powdered leaf debris from Spartina alterniflora and Juncus roemerianus, and aged natural detrital material when these were incubated in estuarine water at temperatures near to those recorded in the habitat at the time of collection. The natural assemblage of free-living bacteria in estuarine water rapidly enters logarithmic growth, subsequently declining with the increase in numbers of bactivorous microflagellates. These are then replaced by a mixed population of ciliates, choanoflagellates, amoeboid forms and attached bacteria which form part of a complex microbial community associated with particulate debris. The rate of increase of bacterial cells (μ), in both spring and summer experiments ranged from 0·010–0·108 h −1 whilst estimates of bacterial carbon production ranged from 1·5 to 10·1 μg C 1 −1 h −1, values which conform well with estimates obtained from natural assemblages of marine bacteria in coastal and estuarine waters elsewhere. Although both the ease of degradation of the detrital substrate and incubation temperature are of importance, enrichment of both powdered Spartina leaf debris and aged natural detritus with inorganic nutrients evidently enhances bacterial production under experimental conditions. In addition, the amount of carbon utilized to sustain bacterial carbon production shows a significant reduction following enrichment with NH 4, NO 3 or combinations of NO 3 + PO 4. The bacterial carbon conversion efficiency (μg C incorporated into bacterial production per μg C consumed) × 100, based on powdered Spartina leaves, and aged natural detritus, is thus increased from 9–14%, to as much as 38% in nutrient enriched media. Since NH 4, NO 3 and PO 4 values are generally low in the water column, it seems likely that bacteria achieve a carbon conversion of only 9–14% on natural suspended detrital material, with the possibility of an enhanced conversion of up to 38% occurring at the sediment-water interface where ammonia regeration occurs. This suggests that suspended bacteria which characterize estuarine waters of salt marsh areas may be responsible for the oxidation of 86–91% of the carbon which enters water column microheterotroph food chains, and are probably implicated in the large CO 2 fluxes recently recorded from coastal wetland habitats.