REPORT (TERM PAPER-BT 8)

ON

“MICROBES IN ECOSYSTEM”

Submitted to
Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar
(DAV College, Anritsar)

In partial fulfillment of the requirement

For the award of the Degree of

Bachelor of Science
In
Biotechnology

SUPERVISOR- SUBMITTED BY-

Dr. Ashish Gupta Roop Kanwal Sidhu
Assistant Professor B.Sc. Biotech (III)
Department of Botany Roll No. 7957

DAV College, Amritsar

(2010-2011)
 CERTIFICATE
It is certified that Ms. Roop Kanwal Sidhu of B.Sc.(BT)-III has completed her Term
Paper (BT-8) Report entitled Microbes In Ecosystem under my supervision.

Dr. Ashish Gupta

Assistant Professor
Deptt. Of Botany
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I bow my head in front of almighty God, who flourish me with the opportunities and
extents for my career.
I express my sincere thanks to Dr. K.N. Kaul, Principal, D.A.V. College, for
providing me nice infrastructure and facilities.
I wish to express my deep sense of indebtedness to Dr. Vikas Gupta, Head,
Department of Biotechnology for his kind help and guidance.
It is proud to express my sense of thankfulness to Dr. Ashish Gupta, Assistant
Professor, Deptt. Of Botany for helping me in completing my project.
I acknowledge special thanks to my parents for their inspiration, motivation,
encouragement and every kind of help. Lastly, I would like to thank my fellow
classmates and friends for their cooperation and support throughout the procedure.

(Roop Kanwal)
 CONTENTS

1. Introduction
• What are microbes?
• Where do they live?
• Helpful or not?
• Microbes and Environment
• Microorganisms in Ecosystem
2. The Important Impacts of Microbes on Ecosystem
(An Overview)
3. Some Important Microbes of Ecosystem
• Bacteria and Ecosystem
• Fungi and Ecosystem
4. Microbes in Soil Ecosystem
5. Microbes in Aqueous Ecosystem
6. Microbes in Air Ecosystem
7. Endolithic Ecosystem
8. Microbial Mats
9. Conclusion
10. References
 INTRODUCTION

What are microbes?

Microbes are tiny

organisms, that are
unicellular or lives in a
colony of cellular
organisms—too tiny to be
seen without a
microscope, yet they are abundant on Earth. They live everywhere—in air, soil, rock, and
water. Some live happily in searing heat, while others thrive in freezing cold. Some
microbes need oxygen to live, but others do not. These microscopic organisms are found
in plants and animals as well as in the human body. Most microbes belong to one of four
major groups: bacteria, viruses, fungi, or protozoa.

Where Do Microbes Live?

Microbes live in almost every nook and cranny you can think of, from 20 miles beneath
the Earth's surface to 20 miles overhead. They live at temperatures less than -20 degrees
Celsius to temperatures hotter than the boiling point. Microbes thrive on a huge range of
foods including oil and toxic wastes. Every time you walk on the ground you step on
billions of microbes. Microbes live in the soil, on rocks, inside roots, buried under miles
of Earth, in compost piles and toxic waste, and all over the Earth's surface. Microbes are
found in boiling hot springs and on frozen snowfields. Some microbes "breathe"
substances other than oxygen such as nitric acid, sulfuric acid, iron, arsenic or uranium to
produce energy. Some microbes live near roots of plants in symbiotic associations. Still
other microbes flourish in chemical environments harmful to humans and remove toxins
like oil and pesticides. Where there is water, there are microbes. Microbes, like other
living organisms, need water to live and reproduce.

Microbes live in the farthest reaches of the atmosphere. Microbes may inhabit space
beyond our world. The air around us is filled with microbes. Bacteria, fungi, algae,
protozoa, and viruses float in air currents. The numbers of microbes in the air range from
10 to 10,000 per cubic meter. They are found easily up to 3000 meters and as high as six
miles into the air. Microbes may inhabit space beyond our earth. If life exists on other
planets, it is most probably microbial life.

Helpful or Not?

Microbes are much more our friends than our enemies. Although some microbes cause
health problems such as strep throat, chickenpox and the common cold, most microbes
make our lives better such as:

Bacillus thuringiensis - a common soil bacterium that is a natural pest-killer in gardens

and on crops.
Arbuscular mycorrhizas - fungus living in the soil that helps crops take up nutrients from
the soil.
Saccharomyces cerevisiae - baker's yeast that makes bread rise.

Escherichia coli - one of many kinds of microbes that live in your digestive system to
help you digest your food every day.
Streptomyces - bacteria in soil that makes an antibiotic used to treat infections.
Pseudomonas putida - one of many microbes that clean wastes from sewage water at
water treatment plants.
Lactobacillus acidophilus - one of the bacteria that turn milk into yogurt.

There are many other important jobs microbes do. They are used to make medicine. They
break down the oil from oil spills. They make about half of the oxygen we breathe. They
are the foundation of the food chain that feeds all living things on earth. We've been
using microbes for thousands of years to make products we need and enjoy. For example,
you can thank fungi for the cheese on your cheeseburger and yeast for your bun. Cheese
and bread are two microbe-made foods people have been enjoying since time began.

Over the past 50 years, we've begun using microbes to do all kinds of new work for us.
Here are some examples of microbes at work in pollution control and medicine.

In pollution control, researchers are using bacteria that eat methane gas to clean up
hazardous waste dumps and landfills. These methane-eating bacteria make an enzyme
that can break down more than 250 pollutants into harmless cells. By piping methane into
the soil, researchers can increase growth of the bacteria that normally live in the polluted
soil. More bacteria means faster pollution break up. Also, bacteria is being used as one of
the tools to clean up oil spills. These bacteria eat the oil, turning it into carbon dioxide
and other harmless by-products.

Fungi and bacteria produce antibiotics such as penicillin and tetracycline . These are
medicines we use to fight off harmful bacteria that cause sore throats, ear infections,
diarrhea and other discomforts. Scientists have changed the genetic material of bacteria
and yeasts to turn them into medicine. They inject genes for medicines they want to make
into the microbe cells, as if adding new building information to the microbe's cell DNA.
The scientists then grow the microbes in huge containers called fermenters where they
reproduce into billions, all making new medicines.

Microbes And Environment

Microorganisms play several key roles in the environment. Besides their, well-known
activities in biogeochemical cycling, soil fertility maintenance etc., several microbes
could be shown very helpful in maintenance of environmental quality through
biodegradation of wastes (urban, municipal and industrial) into useful products and also
in biodegradation of harmful pesticides used in crop protection and public health.

Bioremediation of Oil Spills

DOT, lindane heptachlor, chlordane, malathion etc., are biodegraded by several bacteria,
and fungi. These microbes are thus efficient purifiers of the environment. Besides this,
microbes are also able to remove toxic heavy metals from industrial wastes. Some
bacteria are also able to metabolise hydrocarbons in the petroleum and thus very useful in
removal of oil-spills and grease from water bodies. A strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa
has been developed in USA which is able to produce a glycolipid emulsifier that reduces
the surface tension of an oil- water interface, thus removing oil from water. For removal
of grease deposits, a mixture of several bacteria is used.

Some microorganisms can also be used in environmental monitoring and biomonitoring.

Environmental pollutants can be detected by use of appropriate strains of microbes as
biosensors. Biosensor is a biophysical device used to detect the presence and quantify the
specific substances (sugars, proteins, hormones, pollutants) in the specific environments.

Microorganisms in Ecosystems:
An ecosystem is an area of nature that includes biotic and abiotic components. These
components have processes that make up and define a certain section of the
environment. The biotic and abiotic components are linked by nutrient cycling and the
flow of energy. Microorganisms in the ecosystem decompose organic substrates called
mineralization and are a source of food for some chemoheterotrophic microbes. Some
organisms produce antimicrobial substances such as antibiotics. Adaptations of a microbe
to its environment can include modifying its metabolism to optimize its survival in a
given place.

Fungi play an important role in decomposition of organic matter.

Ecosystem and its components: Abiotic Substances, Producers, Consumers,

Decomposers. Ecosystems consist of: living organisms which interact with inanimate
substances, other organisms and each other resulting in changes in the abiotic
environment. The interactions of organisms is called ecology. Microenvironment is a
subset of the larger ecosystem. It is characterized by the presence of overlapping
gradients of resources, toxic material and limiting factors. The most important aspect of
microbes on their environment is the ability to recycle essential elements that make up
cells.

The Important Impacts of Microbes on Ecosystems

 (An Overview)

(1) Generate Oxygen in the Atmosphere.

Almost all of the production of oxygen by bacteria on earth today occurs in the oceans by
the cyanobacteria or "blue-green algae.

(2) Recycle nutrients stored in organic matter to an inorganic form.

Decomposition releases the mineral nutrients (e.g., N, P, K) bound up in dead organic
matter in an inorganic form that is available for primary producers to use. Without this
recycling of inorganic nutrients, primary productivity on the globe would stop.

Decomposition of Organic Matter into Nutrients by Bacteria

On land, most of the decomposition (also called "mineralization") of dead organic matter
occurs at the soil surface, and the rate of decomposition is a function of moisture and
temperature (too little or too much of either reduces the rate of decomposition). Fungi are
important in terrestrial systems, but not in aquatic. They are present even before the
leaves and twigs enter the soil and so decomposition starts in the living or senescent plant
material. Fungi are the most important decomposers of structural plant compounds
(cellulose and lignin – but note that lignin is not broken down when oxygen is absent).
The fungi invade the organic matter in soils first and are then followed by bacteria.

In water, the decomposition of organic matter is mostly oxic in streams and in the ocean
and anoxic in the bottoms of lakes or in swamps. As shown in the table above, oxic
decomposition proceeds faster (produces higher energy yields for the bacteria) than
decomposition in environments where there is no oxygen. In the open ocean, the water is
so deep (average 3900 m) and contains so much oxygen, that most of the algal-formed
organic matter at the surface decomposes aerobically before it reaches the bottom. For
example, only 2% of the primary productivity in the upper ocean sinks to a depth of 3500
m. Most of the world is ocean, and most of the ocean is deep, so most of the aquatic
decomposition must be aerobic. But in shallow waters, coastal oceans, lakes and
estuaries, 25-60% of the organic matter produced may settle out of the upper waters
rapidly and be decomposed anaerobically. Of course another important impact of
decomposition besides generating inorganic nutrients is to produce CO2 and CH4 that is
released to the atmosphere.

(3) Fix nitrogen from the Atmosphere into a Useable Form.

The only organisms capable of removing N2 gas from the atmosphere and "fixing" it into
a useable nitrogen form (NH3) are bacteria. The specific bacteria that can perform N
fixation are scattered throughout the groups including the cyanobacteria. All organisms
that fix nitrogen use the same mechanisms and the same enzymes – this ability probably
evolved only once and early in the history of life. Symbiotic N2 fixation costs the plant
photosynthate to support the fixation and the NH3 assimilation; this cost could be from
15-30% of the total carbon assimilated by the plant. In fact, to fix one molecule of N2
requires about 25 molecules of ATP, so it is expensive from the bacterial standpoint, and
that means that the plant must support that energy requirement. In return the plant
receives nitrogen, which may otherwise be a limiting nutrient.

Another difficulty for the bacteria is that one of the enzymes necessary for nitrogen
fixation is destroyed by oxygen (which is necessary for efficient ATP formation). One
solution to this problem is to form symbiotic relationships with other organisms that can
provide carbohydrates; these include diatoms, the fungi of certain lichens, shipworms,
termites, and certain plants especially in nodules of the roots.

Fixation of Atmospheric Nitrogen into useable form

(4) Allow Herbivores to Consume Poor Quality Food.

In the ocean, most of the primary productivity is consumed by herbivores. In contrast, in
terrestrial systems most of the primary productivity is not consumed by the herbivores.
The reasons for this difference are: (1) animals lack digestive enzymes capable of using
cellulose and lignin and other structural plant compounds; (2) plants often have anti-
grazing toxins, aromatic resins, or thorns; (3) most land plant tissue is poor in mineral
nutrients (especially N and P) compared to the tissue in the herbivore.

In a ruminant animal (cattle, deer, giraffe) the ingested food, possibly regurgitated and re-
chewed, passes into the rumen together with saliva (60-100 liters produced per day). The
rumen is really a continuous fermenter where the complex carbohydrates of the plant are
fermented into methane, carbon dioxide, and fatty acids. The biota of the rumen are
found in about equal biomasses of bacteria (1011/ mL), protozoans (105/ mL to 106/ mL),
and fungi (poorly known biomass). About 60-65% of the total energy removed from the
plant food that is ingested by the animal comes from rumen fermentation. Plant tissues
passing from the rumen undergo secondary fermentation in the caecum and large
intestine where an additional 8-30% of the total energy is provided.

Microbial Action in the Rumen of the Ruminants

In addition, many termites contain protozoans and bacteria in their guts that perform
similar operations. The protozoans are capable of digesting cellulose, and bacteria in the
gut generate CH4 from the organic compounds released from the cellulose degradation.
Finally, some termites also have bacteria in their guts that are capable of fixing nitrogen
from the atmosphere, providing a useable nitrogen source for the termite.

(5) Give Plant Roots Access to Nutrients in the Soil.

Plant roots create a zone of nutrient depletion around themselves. To have access to new
sources of nutrients, a plant can either grow more roots and small root hairs (some as
small as 10 um) or form an association with a fungus whose hyphae provide an even
more efficient absorptive structure. Most vascular plants can form such associations,
which are called "mycorrhizae". Mycorrhizal fungi include those living on the surface of
plants (ectotrophic or sheathing) and those which enter the host (endotrophic or vesicular-
arbuscular or simply "V-A").
 Role of Microbial Biomass in Cycling of Plant Nutrients from Soil

The added advantage to the plant is that the hyphae can secrete enzymes that break down
organic molecules and make inorganic nutrients available. While the plants gain
nutrients, the fungi gain carbohydrate food from the plant. There is also a cost to the plant
in this association; one study reported that mycorrhizal biomass was only 1% of a fir
forest ecosystem but used 15% of the net primary production.

SOME IMPORTANT MICROBES OF ECOSYSTEM

1. BACTERIA AND ECOSYSTEM

Bacteria grow in a wide variety of habitats and conditions.

When most people think of bacteria, they think of disease-causing organisms, like the
Streptococcus bacteria growing in culture in this picture, which were isolated from a man
with strep throat. While pathogenic bacteria are notorious for such diseases as cholera,
tuberculosis, and gonorrhea, such disease-causing species are a comparatively tiny
fraction of the bacteria as a whole.

Bacteria are so widespread that it is possible only to make the most general statements
about their life history and ecology. They may be found on the tops of mountains, the
bottom of the deepest oceans, in the guts of animals, and even in the frozen rocks and ice
of Antarctica. One feature that has enabled them to spread so far, and last so long is their
ability to go dormant for an extended period.

Beneficial Bacteria: an Ecosystem Service

RHIZOBIA: Rhizobia benefit plants. They “fix” nitrogen, in other words, they combine
nitrogen from the air with hydrogen from water to form ammonia (NH3) (Rhizobia).
Rhizobia infect the roots of legumes. Beans, peas, clover and alfalfa are common legume
crops. Here’s a picture of a Soyabean root infected by Rhizobia.

The infected
roots form lumps
called nodules.
The infection is symbiotic, or it forms a partnership with the plant. Rhizobia provide the
plants with nitrogen, and essential nutrient. The root nodules provide rhizobia with sugars
and water and a very low level of oxygen.

METHANOGENS

Methanogens can reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. They’re classified as archaea,
similar to bacteria (Methanogen). Like rhizobia, they live where there is very little
oxygen. This environment is called anaerobic. There are many kinds of methanogens.
Some live in ice, some live in hot springs.

Picture of a Halobacteria

Methanogens produce methane (CH4), an odorless, colorless, FLAMMABLE gas. The

gas can be used as a natural gas substitute with a few modifications to appliances or
engines (Fry 63-68). Note that the methane gas is contaminated with carbon dioxide and
hydrogen sulfide—the later of which gives manure its rotten-egg smell. This kind of
methanogen prefer a temperature of about 95F.
ROLES OF BACTERIA IN ECOSYSTEM

Nitrogen fixing bacteria

Nitrogen is essential for all life on this planet, but most of it is in the air, making up about
78% of the earth's atmosphere.

Bacteria are the only organisms capable of taking gaseous nitrogen and combining it with
hydrogen to make ammonia. So nitrogen-fixing bacteria are an essential part of all
ecosystems. Mostly they are free-living soil organisms, but some plants have developed
an association with bacteria which infect their roots and , in return for sugars from the
plant, fix nitrogen which can be used by the plant for growth. The most important belong
to the genus Rhizobium, which infects the roots of both trees and herbaceous plants in the
bean family (Fabaceae or Leguminosae).

Nodules on Cow Pea root

The bacteria live in nodules on the plant root. The reduction of nitrogen to ammonia can
only occur in the absence of oxygen. The sheath of plant cells around the bacteroids
keeps oxygen out.

Saprophytes

Along with the fungi, bacteria are the most important decomposers in all ecosystems.
Without the recycling activities of these organisms life would grind to a standstill
because all nutrients would get locked up in dead plants and animals. When we build a
compost heap we are using bacteria and fungi to solve our waste-management problems,
and at the same time we make ourselves less dependent on inputs of nutrients from the
farm or garden store.

Photosynthetic bacteria

Bacteria were the first organisms to develop the capability to use solar energy to make
organic compounds. We now think that more complex organisms, including plants
acquired this capability by the capture of bacterial cells which became their chloroplasts.
The most important group of photosynthetic bacteria are the blue-green algae that are an
important component of the phytoplankton in seas and lakes. There are several
differences in the details of photosynthesis in bacteria and plants. Some bacteria can use
molecules other than water as a starting material.
2. FUNGI AND THE ECOSYSTEM

Fungi serve as one of the principal decomposers in ecosystems. As decomposers fungi

return various important elements such as carbon and nitrogen back to the environment
thus preventing them from becoming tied up in organic matter. Fungi are often found
growing on woody substrates, soils, leaf litter, dead animals, and animal exudates.

The best wood rotters in the natural world are fungi. The major wood rotters belong to
the phyla Basidiomycota and Ascomycota. These fungi have the distinctive capacity to
infiltrate and enzymatically digest the lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose components of
the hardest wood. Roughly 80 billion tons of carbon are returned to the atmosphere each
year as carbon dioxide through the biodegradation of woody material. Consequently,
fungi play an important role in the carbon cycle.

Fungi: a Primary Decomposer

Fungi are highly adapted for the task of breaking down plant material. Invasive hyphae
penetrate tissues and cells, secreting enzymes, which break down plant cell wall
components. The major components of wood are cellulose and lignin. Certain fungi only
attack and digest the cellulose component of wood, which in turn leaves the lignin
component behind. The lignin that remains gives the wood a brown color. This type of
decay is called “Brown Rot”. As brown-rot fungi attack wood they follow the lines of
least resistance, vascular rays and the lines between annual rings of growth. When the
wood dries out it fractures into angular pieces along these lines attack producing a type of
decay referred to as “Cubic Rot”. Other types of fungi attack both the lignin and cellulose
components resulting in what is called “White Rot”. When these fungi destroy both the
cellulose and lignin a white or bleached residue is left behind.

TYPES OF FUNGI
Depending on their relationship to the substrate in which fungi grow, they can be
separated into the following three categories: (1) parasitic fungi, (2) saprophytic fungi,
and (3) Mycorrhizal fungi.

The majority of the serious fungus pests are parasitic fungi. These fungi survive by
feeding on living organisms. Included in this group are some of the most dangerous plant
pathogens. For example, Cryhonectria parasitica, is the agent of destruction for an
estimated 4 billion chestnut trees in the eastern United States. Likewise, parasitic fungi
infect humans causing diseases like Pneumocystis and Valley Fever.

Snail with Parasitic Fungus

On the other end of the spectrum are saprophytic fungi that live off dead or decaying
matter such as wood, humus, soil, grass, and dung. A common and easily recognizable
fungus in this group is Fairy Ring Mushroom (Marasmius oreades) which grows on
lawns. Aptly named, Fairy Ring Mushroom periodically produces circles of mushrooms
on it outer fringes. The reason behind this phenomenon is that the mycelium of this
terrestrial fungus if supplied with an even distribution of nutrients will grow outward at
the same rate in all directions thereby producing a “fairy ring.” As each year passes the
fairy ring grows in size as the mycelium grows outward. Eventually an obstruction or
lack of food inhibits further mycelia growth. At this point portions of the fairy ring’s
mycelium dies or breaks up into arcs. It has been estimated that various fairy rings found
in the prairies of the Midwest are six hundred years old.

Association of Mycorrhizal fungi with roots

The third and final category is mycorrhizal fungi. Fungi in this group form symbiotic
relationships with plants, typically trees, in which the mycelium of the fungus forms a
sheath of hyphae around the rootlets of its host. The plant provides the fungus with water
and organic compounds, while the fungus assists the plant in the absorption minerals such
as phosphorous. Additionally, studies have revealed that mycorrhizal fungi do not grow
without their host and the host plant itself is out competed by other plants that do possess
their normal mycorrhizal partner. Many mycorrhizal fungi are host specific, meaning
they only grow with one kind of tree. On the other hand host trees can have several
mycorrhizal partners. It has been reported that a single Douglas fir had over 50 species
of mycorrhizal mushrooms associated with it.
 MICROBES IN SOIL ECOSYSTEM

We have all heard of microbes… acidophilus in yogurt, yeast in bread dough, scrubbing
bubbles in the bathtub, and even beneficial microbes for our soil. We hear probiotics are
good for our health, and antibiotics cure infections, but what’s the real deal on microbes
and our soil?

The real deal is that without soil microbes, we would all die. The work they do in our soil
is incredibly complex but it all boils down to this: microbes eat, thus we eat. Plants are
unable to take from the soil the nutrition they need without microbes working in the soil.
Microbes are alive, and must have nutrition to survive, and that nutrition comes from
organic matter. As they consume the nutrients they need, microbes create foods like
nitrogen, carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, phosphorus, potassium and trace minerals for our
plants. It is the microbes that convert the NPK and minerals in the soil into a form our
plants can use to grow and produce food and flowers for us.

Microbes
Microbes are everywhere. They are in the air, in the rivers and oceans, in our drinking
water, in the soil, and on our skin. Of course we know some microbes are bad, like e. coli
and salmonella, but more are considered beneficial and out-compete pathogens for
survival in the soil. There are all kinds of microbes, like algae, protozoa, bacteria and
fungi, with many others waiting to be discovered. Their populations in soil are numerous:
as many as one billion of up to 13,000 species can reside in a single gram of soil.[1] (1
gram = 0.0022 pounds, so maybe a teaspoon?)

Compostable garden waste Garden compost Muck from horse stalls

Most microbes need organic carbon to live; they get this from eating wood chips, leaves,
manures and other organic materials added to the soil. As microbes digest organic matter,
they create humus which increases soil structure, good for root penetration and
development. (Compaction can nullify much of this action.) Microbes also get some
carbon from the rhizosphere (the area immediately around plant roots) because roots give
off substances the microbes can use, like sugars and amino acids... and then the microbes
convert some of it back in forms the plants can use, as minerals, vitamins, nitrogen and
amino acids. (Amino acids are the building blocks of protein. Humans need 20 amino
acids to make muscle, hair, skin, and connective tissue, and human bodies only make 10
of them. The others must be supplied by food from plants and animals.[2])

Some microbes (like some bacteria and blue-green algae) are able to “fix” nitrogen from
the air and make it available to plants. Some plants and trees cannot grow if deprived of
specific microbes (mycorrhizal fungi) around their roots. That’s why some plants need a
good shovelful of additional soil from around their roots for company when
transplanting. There are microbes that break down contaminants and toxins, like oil spills
and toluene from gasoline leaks. The word for that action is bioremediation and research
is ongoing to select microbes that digest other toxins in our soils.
There are many garden products available containing beneficial microbes for the soil.
Some are in the fast-acting form of foliar sprays, and some are home-brewed compost
teas used to spray or drench. In all cases, foliar sprays are not enough; there must also be
organic matter continually available in the soil for the microbes to eat. The leaves,
compost and/or manure you added last summer need continual replenishment. Microbes
multiply, and if your microbe population is low due to lack of organic matter, it can be
easily rectified by amending the soil with organic matter and allowing time for microbial
growth. Jump-starting the reproduction of microbes by adding beneficial microbes along
with organic matter is an option depending on how soon you want to see results, and the
cost.

Nitrogen Fixing Bacteria in Soil Ecosystem

We can readily say that microbes are the workhorses of our gardens. Microbes make
nutrients in the soil available to plants in a form the plants can use. Microbes create some
of those nutrients, and we (with Nature’s help) add the rest. Because the plants are
healthier, they resist disease better, and tolerate environmental stress better. Microbes
improve soil structure by the humus they create while digesting organic matter. Microbes
help in nitrogen fixing.
 MICROBES IN AQUEOUS ECOSYSTEM
Earth is called the “water” planet since such a large fraction of the Earth’s surface is
covered by water. However, the majority of this water is saline and the few percentage
points of water that exist in freshwater forms is in ice, or small reservoirs at or below the
Earth’s surface. Aquatic habitats are teeming with microscopic life that control the
habitability of the planet through their roles in biogeochemical cycles and food webs.
Freshwater resources are in danger from a multitude of environmental problems,
including salination, contamination and overuse. The oceans are also sensitive to long-
term environmental changes including those of anthropogenic origin. Microbial activities
are integral to how these ecosystem changes are reflected in biogeochemical cycles and
food webs, and how microorganisms will respond will partially, if not primarily,
determine the fate of freshwater and marine resources and the Earth’s climate.

Microbes (Bacteria) from Water

Like all ecosystems, fresh-water ecosystems require energy inputs to sustain the
organisms within. In lakes and streams, plants and also certain microbes conduct
photosynthesis to harvest the Sun's energy. Microbial photosynthesizers include protists
(known as algae) and cyanobacteria . Other protists and animals feed on these
organisms, forming the next link in the food chain . Plant material from the land also
enters lakes and streams at their edges, providing an important nutrient source for many
waterbodies.
Decomposers form an especially important part of fresh-water ecosystems because they
consume dead bodies of plants, animals, and other microbes. These microbial agents of
decay are an important part of the ecosystem because they convert detritus (dead and
decaying matter) and organic materials into needed nutrients, such as nitrate, phosphate,
and sulfate. Decomposers and other microbes are thus essential to the major
biogeochemical cycles by which nutrients are exchanged between the various parts of the
ecosystem, both living and nonliving. Without microbial decomposers, minerals and
nutrients critical to plant and animal growth would not be made available to support other
levels of the fresh-water food chain.

Aerobes and Anaerobes

Aerobic decomposers in water need oxygen to survive and do their work. The lapping
waves and babbling brook help increase the level of dissolved oxygen that is crucial to so
many creatures in lake and stream ecosystems, none more so than the bacteria. If there is
not enough oxygen in the water, many parts of the system suffer: the aerobic
decomposers cannot digest plant matter, insects cannot develop and mature, and the fish
cannot play their part, whether browsing for small food particles or eating other fish.
Eventually, the stream or pond will be changed, starting at the microbial level.

Human interaction can jeopardize parts of this system in a variety if ways. One principal
way is through the runoff of fertilizers or sewage into a waterbody. Both contain nutrients
that plants, algae, and cyanobacteria can use to grow; and excessive nutrient amounts can
lead to very rapid growth. Interconnected sequences of physical, biological, and chemical
events may eventually deplete the water's dissolved oxygen supply, leading to changes in
the aquatic ecosystem. If the conditions become severe enough, only a few species
(known as anaerobes) tolerant of low-oxygen conditions will survive. This process, called
cultural eutrophication, can have profound and lasting consequences on the waterbody.
 MICROBES IN AIR ECOSYSTEM

No microbes are indigenous to the atmosphere rather they represent allochthonous

populations transported from aquatic and terrestrial habitats into the atmosphere.
Microbes of air within 300-1,000 or more feet of the earth's surface are the organisms of
soil that have become attached to fragments of dried leaves, straw or dust particles, being
blown away by the wind. Species vary greatly in their sensitivity to a given value of
relative humidity, temperature and radiation exposures.

Various Microbes
found in Air

More microbes are found in air over land masses than far at sea. Spores of fungi,
especially Alternaria, Cladosporium, Penicillium and Aspergillus are more numerous
than other forms over sea within about 400 miles of land in both polar and tropical air
masses at all altitudes up to about 10,000 feet. Microbes found in air over populated land
areas below altitude of 500 feet in clear weather include spores of Bacillus and
Clostridium, ascospores of yeasts, fragments of myceilium and spores of molds and
streptomycetaceae, pollen, protozoan cysts, algae, Micrococcus, Corynebacterium etc.

In the dust and air of schools and hospital wards or the rooms of persons suffering from
infectious diseases, microbes such as tubercle bacilli, streptococci, pneumococci and
staphylococci have been demonstrated.These respiratory bacteria are dispersed in air in
the droplets of saliva and mucus produced by coughing, sneezing, talking and laughing.
Viruses of respiratory tract and some enteric tract are also transmitted by dust and air.
Pathogens in dust are primarily derived from the objects contaminated with infectious
secretions that after drying become infectious dust.

A Petri Dish with

Culture Medium kept in Air

Droplets are usually formed by sneezing, coughing and talking. Each droplet consists of
saliva and mucus and each may contain thousands of microbes. It has been estimated that
the number of bacteria in a single sneeze may be between 10,000 and 100,000. Small
droplets in a warm, dry atmosphere are dry before they reach the floor and thus quickly
become droplets. Many plant pathogens are also transported from one field to another
through air and the spread of many fungal diseases of plants can be predicted by
measuring the concentration of airborne fungal spores. Human bacterial pathogens which
cause important airborne diseases such as diphtheria, meningitis, pneumonia, tuberculosis
and whooping cough.

ENDOLITHIC ECOSYSTEM
An endolith is an organism (archaeum, bacterium, fungus, lichen, alga or amoeba) that
lives inside rock, coral, animal shells, or in the pores between mineral grains of a rock.
Many are extremophiles; living in places previously thought inhospitable to life. They are
of particular interest to astrobiologists, who theorize that endolithic environments on
Mars and other planets constitute potential refugia for extraterrestrial microbial
communities.

A Cryptoendolith

The endolithic environment, the pore space in rocks, is a ubiquitous microbial habitat
and an interface between biology and geology. Photosynthesis-based endolithic
communities inhabit the outer centimeters of rocks exposed to the surface, and offer
model systems for microbial ecology, geobiology, and astrobiology. Endolithic
ecosystems are among the simplest microbial ecosystems known and as such provide
tractable models for testing ecological hypotheses. Such hypotheses have been difficult to
test because microbial ecosystems are extraordinarily diverse. We review here recent
culture-independent, ribosomal RNA-based studies that evaluate hypotheses about
endolithic ecosystems, and provide insight for understanding general principles in
microbial ecology. Comparison of endolithic communities supports the principle that
patterns of microbial diversity are governed by similar principles observed in
macroecological systems.

Environment

Endoliths have been found in rock down to a depth of 3 kilometres (1.9 mi), though it is
unknown if that is their limit (due to the cost involved in digging so deeply). The main
threat to their survival seems not to result from the pressure at such depth, but from the
increased temperature. Judging from hyperthermophile organisms, the temperature limit
is at about 120 °C (the recently discovered Strain 121 can reproduce at 121 °C), which
limits the possible depth to 4-4.5 km below the continental crust, and 7 or 7.5 km below
the ocean floor. Endolithic organisms have also been found in surface rocks in regions of
low humidity (hypolith) and low temperature (psychrophile), including the Dry Valleys
and permafrost of Antarctica, the Alps and the Rocky Mountains.

Survival

Endoliths can survive by feeding on traces of iron, potassium, or sulfur. Whether they
metabolize these directly from the surrounding rock, or rather excrete an acid to dissolve
them first, remains to be seen. Photosynthetic endoliths have also been discovered.

As water and nutrients are rather sparse in the environment of the endolith, they have a
very slow reproduction cycle. Early data suggests that some only engage in cell division
once every hundred years. Most of their energy is spent repairing cell damage caused by
cosmic rays or racemization, and very little is available for reproduction or growth. It is
thought that they weather long ice ages in this fashion, emerging when the temperature in
the area warms.

Slime

As most endoliths are autotrophs, they can generate organic compounds essential for their
survival on their own from inorganic matter. Inevitably, some endoliths have specialized
in feeding on their autotroph relatives. The micro-biotope where these different endolithic
species live together has been called a subsurface lithotrophic microbial ecosystem
(SLiME).

MICROBIAL MAT

A microbial mat is a
multi-layered sheet of
micro-organisms, mainly bacteria and archaea. Microbial mats grow at interfaces
between different types of material, mostly on submerged or moist surfaces but a few
survive in deserts. They colonize environments ranging in temperature from –40°C to
+120°C. A few are found as endosymbionts of animals.

Photosynthetic Microbial Mat

Microbial mats are the earliest form of life on Earth for which there is good fossil
evidence, from 3,500 million years ago, and have been the most important members and
maintainers of the planet's ecosystems. Originally they depended on hydrothermal vents
for energy and chemical "food", but the development of photosynthesis gradually
liberated them from the "hydrothermal ghetto" by proving a more widely-available
energy source, sunlight, although initially the photosynthesizing mats still depended on
the diffusion of chemicals emitted by hydrothermal vents. The final and most significant
stage of this liberation was the development of oxygen-producing photosynthesis, since
the main chemical inputs for this are carbon dioxide and water.

As a result microbial mats began to produce the atmosphere we know today, in which
free oxygen is a vital component. At around the same time they may also have been the
birthplace of the more complex eukaryote type of cell, of which all multicellular
organisms are composed. Microbial mats were abundant on the shallow seabed until the
Cambrian substrate revolution, when animals living in shallow seas increased their
burrowing capabilities and thus broke up the surfaces of mats and let oxygenated water
into the deeper layers, poisoning the oxygen-intolerant micro-organisms that lived there.
Although this revolution drove mats off soft floors of shallow seas, they still flourish in
many environments where burrowing is limited or impossible, including rocky seabeds
and shores, hyper-saline and brackish lagoons, and are found on the floors of the deep
oceans.

Ecological Importance
 A trace fossil of a non-stromatolite microbial mat

Microbial mats use all of the types of metabolism and feeding strategy that have evolved
on Earth — anoxygenic and oxygenic photosynthesis; anaerobic and aerobic
chemotrophy (using chemistry rather than sunshine as a source of energy); organic and
inorganic respiration and fermentation (i..e converting food into energy with and without
using oxygen in the process); autotrophy (producing food from inorganic compounds)
and heterotrophy (producing food only from organic compounds, by some combination
of predation and detritivory). The combined metabolic activities of mat microbes result in
steep environmental microgradients, particularly of oxygen and sulfide. The driving force
of most microbial mats is photosynthesis by cyanobacteria and algae. Subsequently,
sulfate-reducing bacteria, using excretion-, lysis-, and decomposition products of
cyanobacteria, produce sulfide by the dissimilatory reduction of sulfate. The final product
of sulfide oxidation is sulfate, with elemental sulfur, deposited extracellularly.

CONCLUSION
Microorganism, be it alga, protozoan, fungus, bacterium or virus represents a very
significant member of the world's biomes. Biomes group ecosystem(consisting of both
living and non-living factors) according to similarity in climates and inhabitation by
particular plants and animals. A whole lot of lifeforms are to be found in any ecosystem.
But these lifeforms have to learn to co-exist with non-living factors. A story was told of a
layman who plans to invest his energy in looking for ways to exterminate all of the
mosquitoes on earth. When a scientist in the neighborhood told him of the importance of
mosquitoes in the pollination of some specific flowers, he bowed out! The world of
microorganisms presents to man a rare opportunity to learn more about those lifeforms
the naked eyes could not see using a light or an electron microscope.

First, microorganisms may be used in bringing to fruition some vital chemical

reactions, including baking, pickling, winemaking, and brewing. The baking process uses
the fungus known as yeast to make bread dough to rise, in an oven whose temperature is
in the neighborhood of 300 degrees Centigrade. Pickling is a method of preserving food
by the use of anaerobic fermentation in brine(a saturated solution of sodium chloride).
Winemaking is also called vinification. It is a process that makes use of fermentation to
produce wines from grapes. Brewing offers man with the recipes for lager, mead, cider,
and ale. In bewing, these malt beverages are made from malt and hops by grinding and
boiling them before fermentation with yeasts.

Second, miroorganisms are now used to produce biogas from cow dungs and other
similar wastes from poultry and piggery. The main chemical content of the biogas is
methane, the common fuel for home cooking and heating. Biogas reactors are now
becoming more and more common as the benefit of biogas spreads arounds the world.
Bacteria are the most important microorgnisms in the production process.

Third, man keeps using the same water from different ecosystem again and again,
because microorganisms are forever available to help convert the very harmful
wastewaters from various sources to harmless or disease-free potable water for everyone.
With science and now, specially-cultured microbes are used to biologically effect a
change in the wastewater.

Ethanol is becoming a very important fuel now in the US courtesy of research and most
importantly yeast. Some cars now run on biodiesel fuel. A very good example is the E85
fuel, a blend of 85 ethanol and 15 percent gasoline.
Our knowledge of genetics may never be as rich as it is today without microorganisms.
Virus has shown us more facts about ribonucleic acid(RNA) and deoxiribonucleic
acid(DNA) than is known before. These nucleic acids, in conjunction with protein form
the bedrock of life.

Molecular biology has shown us that our knowledge of microorganisms may be put to
good use to create steroids and treat skin diseases. But what are steroids? Steroids are any
of a number of natural or artificial substances that regulates body functions. Skin diseases
include eczema, athlete's foot, measles. bedsores, birthmarks, chicken pox, and impetigo.
In virtually all of the ecosystems, including mountains, tundra, temperate forest,
marine, desert, grassland, and savannah, miroorganisms participates actively in the
carbon and nitrogen cycles. Nitrogen cycle is found in terrestrial ecosystem and is the
continuous trapping of nitrogen gas by the compound of the soil and the eventual return
to the atmosphere.

Finally, man can never know in totality the whole lot of importance of microorganisms,
including algae, protozoans, fungi, bacteria, and viruses, in the earth's ecosystems. But as
our knowledge of science grew, fermentation processes, biogas production, wastewater
treatment, and biodiesel fuel processing are some of the importance of microorganisms in
the earth's ecosystem. Others include genetics, molecular biology, and carbon and
nitrogen cycles.

REFERENCES

1. Googlesearch
2. Wikipedia
3. Encycloopedia
4. eBooks
5. Science Today
6. Books
• Environmental Microbiology
• Interactions of Microbes with Ecosystem
• Text Books
7. Science Journals
8. Google Images