Book ChapterDOI
Microelectrodes: Their Use in Microbial Ecology
TLDR
There is still a long way to go in understanding of the microbial microenvironments and of the nature of the microorganisms that carry out the measured metabolic activities, and most chemical and radiotracer techniques in use today operate on a centimeter or at best on a millimeter scale and in most cases their results cannot be directly related to the relevant microorganisms.Abstract:
Among the fundamental goals of microbial ecology is the development of methods that will enable the identification and counting of the important microorganisms in nature, the determination of their physical and chemical microenvironment, and the analysis of their metabolic processes and interactions. Due to the small size of the organisms, much effort has been devoted to the development of high-resolution techniques for the observation and understanding of the world of bacteria on a microscale. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy and fluorescent staining, immunofluorescence and other techniques for light microscopy have been the most successful in terms of reaching a high spatial resolution. With respect to our understanding of the microbial microenvironments and of the nature of the microorganisms that carry out the measured metabolic activities, there is still a long way to go. Most chemical and radiotracer techniques in use today operate on a centimeter or at best on a millimeter scale and in most cases their results cannot be directly related to the relevant microorganisms. One notable exception to this is the combined use of autoradiography and fluorescence microscopy on microbial communities.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
PCR primers to amplify 16S rRNA genes from cyanobacteria.
TL;DR: The use of this specific PCR in combination with denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis to probe the diversity of oxygenic phototrophic microorganisms in cultures, lichens, and complex microbial communities is demonstrated.
Journal ArticleDOI
Biofilms, the customized microniche.
TL;DR: It is clearly, timely to ask the question "What are the essential differences between a planktonic cell growing in the conventional batch culture and a cell of the same species growing in a natural multispecies biofilm?"
Journal ArticleDOI
Effects of biofilm structures on oxygen distribution and mass transport.
TL;DR: Aerobic biofilms were found to have a complex structure consisting of microbial cell clusters (discrete aggregates of densely packed cells) and interstitial voids, implying that to accurately describe biofilm activity, the relation between the arrangement of structural components and mass transfer must be undrstood.
References
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Book
The mathematics of diffusion
TL;DR: Though it incorporates much new material, this new edition preserves the general character of the book in providing a collection of solutions of the equations of diffusion and describing how these solutions may be obtained.
Journal ArticleDOI
Life at low Reynolds number
TL;DR: Weisskopf as mentioned in this paper presented a transparencies of a tall rectangular transparent vessel of corn syrup, projected by an overhead projector turned on its side, which was itself a slightly edited transcript of a tape.
Book
Early Diagenesis: A Theoretical Approach
TL;DR: In this article, Berner developed the mathematical theory of early diagenesis, introducing a general diagenetic equation and discussing it in terms of each major diagenetics process, including diffusion, compaction, pore-water flow, burial advection, bioturbation, adsorption, radioactive decay and especially chemical and biochemical reactions.
Book
Introduction to soil microbiology
TL;DR: In this paper, the biological processes that take place in the soil and their importance to soil fertility, plant growth, and environmental quality are investigated from both descriptive and functional viewpoints, including microbial ecology, the carbon and nitrogen cycles, mineral transformation, and ecological interrelationships.