Microbial ecology of the environment

Abstract

Microbes represent not only themost abundant but also exhibit the greatest diversity of any group of organisms on the planet. Through culture-dependent methods, the extraordinary physiological diversity of microbial life has long been recognised. However, with the application of molecular microbial techniques, estimates of microbial diversity have increased dramatically. In particular, the advent of low cost, next generation sequencing technologies has led to an explosion in sequence-based microbial community studies investigating taxon diversity and community structure (e.g. via rRNA gene analysis) and/or microbial function via metagenomics of the uncultivatedmajority ofmicroorganismspresentwithin the environment. Such approaches have revealed a diverse wealth of hitherto unknown microbial taxa and provided new understanding of the ecological and biological functions and adaptations of environmental microbes. What is required now is to link our understanding of microbial diversity and complexity to ecosystem function. In natural environments, microorganisms interact with both biotic and abiotic components of their ecosystems. These interactions are essential for ecosystem function with key specific functions including biogeochemical cycling, biodegradation of pollutants and the impacts of microbes upon the activity and health of plants and animals, including humans.