Introduction To Geomicrobiology

Introduction to Geomicrobiology is a timely and comprehensive overview of how microbial life has affected Earth’s environment through time. It shows how the ubiquity of microorganisms, their high chemical reactivity, and their metabolic diversity make them a significant factor controlling the chemical composition of our planet. The following topics are covered: how microorganisms are classified, the physical constraints governing their growth, molecular approaches to studying microbial diversity, and life in extreme environments bioenergetics, microbial metabolic capabilities, and major biogeochemical pathways chemical reactivity of the cell surface, metal sorption, and the microbial role in contaminant mobility and bioremediation/biorecovery microbiological mineral formation and fossilization the function of microorganisms in mineral dissolution and oxidation, and the industrial and environmental ramifications of these processes elemental cycling in biofilms, formation of microbialites, and sediment diagenesis the events that led to the emergence of life, evolution of metabolic processes, and the diversification of the biosphere. Artwork from the book is available to instructors at www.blackwellpublishing.com/konhauser.

Kurt Konhauser explores how microbial life has affected the Earth's environment through time. His introduction discusses how microorganisms are classified, the physical constraints governing their growth, methods used to study their phylogenetic diversity and life in extreme environments.

Advances in geomicrobiology have progressed at an accelerated pace in recent years. Ehrlich's Geomicrobiology, Sixth Edition surveys various aspects of the field, including the microbial role in elemental cycling and in the formation and degradation of minerals and fossil fuels. Unlike the fifth edition, the sixth includes many expert contributors

2012 PROSE Award, Earth Science: Honorable Mention For more than fifty years scientists have been concerned with the interrelationships of Earth and life. Over the past decade, however, geobiology, the name given to this interdisciplinary endeavour, has emerged as an exciting and rapidly expanding field, fuelled by advances in molecular phylogeny, a new microbial ecology made possible by the molecular revolution, increasingly sophisticated new techniques for imaging and determining chemical compositions of solids on nanometer scales, the development of non-traditional stable isotope analyses, Earth systems science and Earth system history, and accelerating exploration of other planets within and beyond our solar system. Geobiology has many faces: there is the microbial weathering of minerals, bacterial and skeletal biomineralization, the roles of autotrophic and heterotrophic metabolisms in elemental cycling, the redox history in the oceans and its relationship to evolution and the origin of life itself.. This book is the first to set out a coherent set of principles that underpin geobiology, and will act as a foundational text that will speed the dissemination of those principles. The chapters have been carefully chosen to provide intellectually rich but concise summaries of key topics, and each has been written by one or more of the leading scientists in that field.. Fundamentals of Geobiology is aimed at advanced undergraduates and graduates in the Earth and biological sciences, and to the growing number of scientists worldwide who have an interest in this burgeoning new discipline. Additional resources for this book can be found at: http://www.wiley.com/go/knoll/geobiology.

Microbes catalyze countless chemical reactions in nature which control the chemistry of the environment. Aquatic Geomicrobiology looks at these reactions and their effect on the aquatic environments from the perspective of the microbes involved. The volume begins with three introductory chapters outlining the basic principles of microbial systematics, microbial ecology, and chemical thermodynamics. These provide a framework for exploring the microbial control of elemental cycling in the remaining chapters. Readers will learn how microbes control the cycling of elements, the structure of the microbial ecosystems involved, and what environmental factors influence the activities of microbial populations. Also available in hardback Written by international experts in the microbial ecology and biogeochemistry of aquatic systems Includes introductory chapters on microbial systematics, principles of microbial ecology, and chemical thermodynamics Contains over 1500 references

Uncovers the Key Role Microbes Play in the Transformation of Oxidizable and Reducible MineralsMany areas of geomicrobial processes are receiving serious attention from microbiologists, specifically the role microbes play in the formation and degradation of minerals and fossil fuels and elemental cycling. Most notably, the latest research finds that

A comprehensive handbook outlining state-of-the-art analytical techniques used in geomicrobiology, for advanced students, researchers and professional scientists.

Geomicrobiology is a combination of geology and microbiology, and includes the study of interaction of microorganisms with their environment, such as in sedimentary rocks. This is a new and rapidly-developing field that has led in the past decade to a radically-revised view of the diversity and activity of microbial life on Earth. Geomicrobiology e