Bücher der Reihe Brock Springer Series in Contemporary Bioscience

The book presents state of the art applications of modern molecular research techniques to a range of topics in ectoenzymes microbial carbon metabolism bacterial population dynamics RNA chemotaxonomy of microbial communities plasmids and adaptation to environmental conditions.

In addition, the book discusses the identification of microbial compounds of agrochemical importance, presents information on chemical screening methods, and concludes with chapters on microbial strain selection, fermentation technology, and genetic engineering of antibiotic-producing microorganisms.

The microbiology of drinking water remains an important worldwide concern despite modem progress in science and engineering.

Organic matter in aquatic environments consists mostly of large compounds which cannot be taken up and utilized directly by microbial cells.

Sulfate-reducing bacteria comprise a diverse and ecologically interactive group of anaerobic prokaryotes which share an extraordinary trait: growth by sulfate respiration with hydrogen sulfide as a major end-product.

The vast majority of the world's lakes are small in size and short lived in geological terms. Just Lake Baikal and the Laurentian Great Lakes alone contain more than 38% of the world's total liquid freshwater.

Hypersaline environments are the principal habitats of petroleum deposition. This book presents a cross-disciplinary examination of the variety of halophilic microorganisms and their roles in modifying the ecology and geochemistry of hypersaline environments.

All ruminants are dependent on the microorganisms that live in their forestomach - the rumen - to break down ingested feed constituents into a form that the host animal can utilize. Protozoa are part of this complex ruminal population and are essential for the nutritional well-being and productivity of the host ruminant.

Safety is a word that has many connotations, of risk ofa possible accident that is acceptable conjuring up different meanings to different to one person* may not be acceptable to an people.

In addition, the book discusses the identification of microbial compounds of agrochemical importance, presents information on chemical screening methods, and concludes with chapters on microbial strain selection, fermentation technology, and genetic engineering of antibiotic-producing microorganisms.

The microbiology of drinking water remains an important worldwide concern despite modem progress in science and engineering.

All relevant ecological aspects of plankton, especially seasonal changes in the species composition, the role of competition for limiting resources in species replacements, the role of parasitism, predation and competition in seasonal succession are treated in detail considering phytoplankton, zooplankton and bacteroplankton.

The field of bacterial genetics has been restricted for many years to Escherichia coli and a few other genera of aerobic or facultatively anaerobic bacteria such as Pseudomonas, Bacillus, and Salmonella.

The most important feature of the modern synthetic theory of evolution is its foundation upon a great variety of biological disciplines. -G. L. STEBBINS, 1968, p. 17 This book is written with the goal of presenting ecologically significant anal- ogies between the biology of microorganisms and macroorganisms. I consider such parallels to be important for two reasons. First, they serve to emphasize that however diverse life may be, there are common themes at the ecological level (not to mention other levels). Second, research done with either microbes or macroorganisms has implications which transcend a particular field of study. Although both points may appear obvious, the fact remains that at- tempts to forge a conceptual synthesiS are astonishingly meager. While unify- ing concepts may not necessarily be strictly correct, they enable one to draw analogies across disciplines. New starting points are discovered as a conse- quence, and new ways of looking at things emerge. The macroscopic organisms ('macroorganisms') include most represen- tatives of the plant and animal kingdoms. I interpret the term 'microorganism' (microbe) literally to mean the small or microscopic forms of life, and I include in this category the bacteria, the protists (excluding the macroscopic green, brown, and red algae), and the fungi. Certain higher organisms, such as many of the nematodes, fall logically within this realm, but are not discussed at any length.