The incidence of bacteria, their biomass production, and heterotrophic assimilation of CO2 by bacterioplankton were studied in the Crimean hypersaline water reservoirs from May to October of 1974. The total incidence of bacteria in the natural brine of these reservoirs varied from 20 to 70 x 10(6) cells per 1 ml. Such a high bacterial number may be caused by the combined action of water evaporation which increased the concentration of bacterial cells and active growth of microflora. Low values of bacterial production and heterotrophic CO2 assimilation should be attributed to weak activity of microflora in the reservoirs.