Environmental Microbiology recognizes the basic foundations and importance of conventional microbiological techniques (which focused greatly on culture-based studies), linking them with information from more recent nonconventional techniques.

Features:

• Applies principles which attest to the undisputable reality that microbes in pure culture may function somewhat differently than in complex multispecies environmental matrices
• Introduces the reader to the several different microorganisms and then unveils the role of each in the environment
• Covers the basic concepts of water treatment and modes of application in a variety of backgrounds and economic settings

Contents

Microbial Evolution and Diversity

• The origin of life
• Microbial diversity and abundance
• Geological evidence of early microbial life on earth
• Onset of Photosynthesis and Resultant Diversification
• Formation of ozone and its effects
• A living Earth
• Genetic materials in evolution
• Molecular chronome-try

Prokaryotes

• Abundant but uncultured
• Problems encountered by prokaryotes in the environment
• Successful Adaptation by prokaryotes to the environment
• Salient features of bacterial genome

Protozoa

• Evolution of protozoa
• Major groups of protozoa
• Environmental adaptability, survival, and dispersal of protozoa
• Protozoa as symbionts and parasites of metazoans
• Motility, Taxes, and other modes of positioning
• Physiological ecology of free-living protozoa and their impact on the environment
• Reproduction in the successful existence of protozoa in the environment

Fungi, Algae and their Associations

• Ecological importance and distribution of fungi and algae
• Environmental adaptability
• Physiological ecology
• Symbiotic associations

Viruses and Related Particles

• What are viruses
• Occurrence of viruses in the environment
• Survival of viruses in the environment
• Other virus-like particles

Methods in Environmental Microbiology

• What microorganisms are present
• Physiological status and activity of microbes in the environment
• General approaches to determining microbial biomass and activity

Mechanisms of Adaptation by Microorganisms to Environmental Extremes

• Principles of selective enrichment
• Energetics of microbial processes in the environment
• Biotic factors affecting adaptation
• Abiotic (Physicochemical) factors affecting adaptation

Ecological Relationships in Exploiting Resources

• Levels of ecological organization
• Types of interactions
• Typical microbial interactions

Microorganisms in Biogeochemical Cycling

• Significance of biogeochemical cycling of nutrient elements
• Carbon cycle
• Nitrogen cycle
• Phosphorus cycle
• Sulfur cycle
• Iron cycle

Microbial Interactions with Organic Pollutants

• Growth-linked biodegradation
• Cometabolism
• Influence of physicochemical properties on organic compound biodegradation
• Mechanisms of metabolizing different classes of organic pollutants
• Linking knowledge of microbial metabolism to the fate of pollutants in field sites

Microbiology of the Atmosphere

• Impact of microbial activities on the greenhouse effect
• Types of bioaerosols
• Survival of bioaerosols in the environment
• Sampling for bioaerosols

Water and Biosolids Microbiology

• Water supply
• Waterborne diseases
• Water purification and treatment
• Water quality testing
• Sewage treatment
• Self-purification capacity of natural waters
• Reuse of sewage and other wastes

Medical Environmental Microbiology

• Ecology of infectious agents and progression of diseases
• Vector-borne diseases
• Food- and waterborne diseases
• Airborne infections
• Risk assessment

Environmental Biotechnology and Biological Control

• Public concerns
• Promising opportunities
• The a-glucuronidase ( GUS ) gene
• The Bt-toxin gene
• Genetically engineeri microorganisms in bioremediation

Index

click here to see books • videos • cd-roms of related interest