In an artificial pH-gradient hatch culture system, the author analyzed the effects of acidification on the species composition of heterotrophic bacteria. As the result of this study, it was found that the numbers of total bacteria were not affected by acidification and that the population size of heterotrophic bacteria decreased as pH became lower. The heterotrophic bacteria isolated from all of the pH gradient were 12 genera and 22 species. and among them, gram negative and gram positive bacteria were 64% and 36%, respectivcly. As pH decreased, the distribution rate of gram negative bacteria increased while that of gram positive bacteria decreased. Regarding to distrihution rate of genuses in each pH gradient, 13 genuses appeared at pH 7 while only 5 genuses appeared at pH 3. which means that the diversity of genera decrease as pH decreased. As a result of cluster analysis, diversity indices 01 species had ranges from 1.13 to 2.37, and decreased as pH decreased. In order to evaluate the diversity of different size samples, we analyzed the expected number of species appearance according to pH by rarefaction method. The statistical significance of species diversity was verified by the fact that the number decreased at lower pH.