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The study of interrelationships between microorganisms and their living and nonliving environments. Microbial populations are able to tolerate and to grow under varying environmental conditions, including habitats with extreme environmental conditions such as hot springs and salt lakes. Understanding the environmental factors controlling microbial growth and survival offers insight into the distribution of microorganisms in nature, and many studies in microbial ecology are concerned with examining the adaptive features that permit particular microbial species to function in particular habitats.
Within habitats some microorganisms are autochthonous (indigenous), filling the functional niches of the ecosystem, and others are allochthonous (foreign), surviving in the habitat for a period of time but not filling the ecological niches. Because of their diversity and wide distribution, microorganisms are extremely important in ecological processes. The dynamic interactions between microbial populations and their surroundings and the metabolic activities of microorganisms are essential for supporting productivity and maintaining environmental quality of ecosystems. Microorganisms are crucial for the environmental degradation of liquid and solid wastes and various pollutants and for maintaining the ecological balance of ecosystems—essential for preventing environmental problems such as acid mine drainage and eutrophication. See Ecosystem
The various interactions among microbial populations and between microbes, plants, and animals provide stability within the biological community of a given habitat and ensure conservation of the available resources and ecological balance. Interactions between microbial populations can have positive or negative effects, either enhancing the ability of populations to survive or limiting population densities. Sometimes they result in the elimination of a population from a habitat.
The transfer of carbon and energy stored in organic compounds between the organisms in the community forms an integrated feeding structure called a food web. Microbial decomposition of dead plants and animals and partially digested organic matter in the decay portion of a food web is largely responsible for the conversion of organic matter to carbon dioxide. See Biomass, Food web
Only a few bacterial species are capable of biological nitrogen fixation. In terrestrial habitats, the microbial fixation of atmospheric nitrogen is carried out by free-living bacteria, such as Azotobacter, and by bacteria living in symbiotic association with plants, such as Rhizobium or Bradyrhizobium living in mutualistic association within nodules on the roots of leguminous plants. In aquatic habitats, cyanobacteria, such as Anabaena and Nostoc, fix atmospheric nitrogen. The incorporation of the bacterial genes controlling nitrogen fixation into agricultural crops through genetic engineering may help improve yields. Microorganisms also carry out other processes essential for the biogeochemical cycling of nitrogen. See Nitrogen cycle
The biodegradation (microbial decomposition) of waste is a practical application of microbial metabolism for solving ecological problems. Solid wastes are decomposed by microorganisms in landfills and by composting. Liquid waste (sewage) treatment uses microbes to degrade organic matter, thereby reducing the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD). See Escherichia