A timely exploration of the coordinated functions of microbiological communities and the impacts of global climate change on microbial life

Ecosystems function like interlocking puzzles and ultimately the health of an ecosystem depends upon the niche activities of its microbial communities.

Assessing the Microbiological Health of Ecosystems summarizes our understanding of how microbial community processes are organized and the mechanisms by which activities of their constituent species are coordinated. The authors collectively present a basis for understanding what produces healthy microbial components of an ecosystem, thereby supplying a foundation for achieving one of the eventual future goals of environmental microbiology: to diagnose and correct the integrative nature of microbial activities when ecosystems fail. Assessing the Microbiological Health of Ecosystems will prove to be a valuable resource to environmental microbiologists, ecologists and integrative biologists. The book will:

• help researchers and students to understand the commonalities of processes, techniques, and discoveries in the study of microbial communities
• contribute to understandings of how microbial communities coordinate their function, discussing how the relative rates and effective integration of community microbial processes are currently measured
• provide insights into the composition of a healthy microbial ecosystem

By learning to recognize what constitutes and produces a healthy microbial ecosystem, we gain significant ground on the path towards being able to diagnose and correct the health of ailing microbial ecosystems. Assessing the Microbiological Health of Ecosystems will help new generations of scientists discern new ways to carry these efforts forward.

Christon J. Hurst, PhD, is a consulting microbiologist based in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. He is also a Lifetime Visiting Professor at Universidad del Valle, Cali, Columbia.