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Submitted to: Journal of Environmental Quality
Publication Type: Review Article Publication Acceptance Date: 8/15/1998 Publication Date: N/A Citation: N/A Interpretive Summary: Technical Abstract: Advancements in microbiological techniques, as well as an increase in the interest in natural microbial resources, have created the need for up-to-date instructions on techniques in microbial ecology. This need has been answered in a new publication that can serve as a university text or professional resource in current methodology. As stated in its preface, this text does not aspire to be comprehensive. It is necessarily selective in its coverage of topics, but gives an excellent description of those subjects that are covered. Generally, chapters begin with a description of a microbial group or application, then move into specific methods. Techniques and recipes are described completely, interspersed with comments on the safety and precision of various options. This is an approachable book that encourages the reader to do some tinkering beyond the cookbook formulas given. Part one deals with taxonomic and functional microbial groups, particularly those associated with nutrient cycles. Part two describes general techniques for microbial environmental studies, including sampling, plating, and several molecular techniques. Part three delves into a few hot topics in microbial ecology: biofilms, bioremediation, modeling and statistics, and numerical classification systems. This book is not, and does not claim to be, a comprehensive document of modern techniques, nor a complete thesis on any one technique or microbial group. It provides good coverage of a broad range of techniques with little delving into final analysis. Therefore it will be most useful to those students and scientists who need instruction and introductory reference material to diverse methods. |
