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Identifying microorganisms responsible for ecologically significant biogeochemical processes

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 3, pages 439–446 (2005)Cite this article

Abstract

Throughout evolutionary time, and each day in every habitat throughout the globe, microorganisms have been responsible for maintaining the biosphere. Despite the crucial part that they play in the cycling of nutrients in habitats such as soils, sediments and waters, only rarely have the microorganisms actually responsible for key processes been identified. Obstacles that have traditionally impeded fundamental microbial ecology inquiries are now yielding to technical advancements that have important parallels in medical microbiology. The pace of new discoveries that document ecological processes and their causative agents will no doubt accelerate in the near future, and might assist in ecosystem management.

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Figure 1: Conceptual representation of the interactions between environmental science and microbial ecology.
Figure 2: Model for the generation and interpretation of environmental microbiological information, with emphasis on field relevance and ecological validation of data.

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Acknowledgements

Support was provided by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The author is grateful to the Second Okazaki Biology Conference on Terra Microbiology and many colleagues, past and present, whose collaboration has enabled his own work and the development of views expressed here.

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  1. Department of Microbiology, Cornell University, Ithaca, 14853, New York, USA

    Eugene L. Madsen

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Madsen, E. Identifying microorganisms responsible for ecologically significant biogeochemical processes. Nat Rev Microbiol 3, 439–446 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro1151

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