Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Editors' Preface
- Isotopic-labelling methods for deciphering the function of uncultured micro-organisms
- Biofilms and metal geochemistry: the relevance of micro-organism-induced geochemical transformations
- Minerals, mats, pearls and veils: themes and variations in giant sulfur bacteria
- Soil micro-organisms in Antarctic dry valleys: resource supply and utilization
- New insights into bacterial cell-wall structure and physico-chemistry: implications for interactions with metal ions and minerals
- Horizontal gene transfer of metal homeostasis genes and its role in microbial communities of the deep terrestrial subsurface
- Biosilicification: the role of cyanobacteria in silica sinter deposition
- Metabolic diversity in the microbial world: relevance to exobiology
- Biogeochemical cycling in polar, temperate and tropical coastal zones: similarities and differences
- Fungal roles and function in rock, mineral and soil transformations
- The deep intraterrestrial biosphere
- Iron, nitrogen, phosphorus and zinc cycling and consequences for primary productivity in the oceans
- Mechanisms and environmental impact of microbial metal reduction
- New insights into the physiology and regulation of the anaerobic oxidation of methane
- Biogeochemical roles of fungi in marine and estuarine habitats
- Role of micro-organisms in karstification
- Index
Horizontal gene transfer of metal homeostasis genes and its role in microbial communities of the deep terrestrial subsurface
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Editors' Preface
- Isotopic-labelling methods for deciphering the function of uncultured micro-organisms
- Biofilms and metal geochemistry: the relevance of micro-organism-induced geochemical transformations
- Minerals, mats, pearls and veils: themes and variations in giant sulfur bacteria
- Soil micro-organisms in Antarctic dry valleys: resource supply and utilization
- New insights into bacterial cell-wall structure and physico-chemistry: implications for interactions with metal ions and minerals
- Horizontal gene transfer of metal homeostasis genes and its role in microbial communities of the deep terrestrial subsurface
- Biosilicification: the role of cyanobacteria in silica sinter deposition
- Metabolic diversity in the microbial world: relevance to exobiology
- Biogeochemical cycling in polar, temperate and tropical coastal zones: similarities and differences
- Fungal roles and function in rock, mineral and soil transformations
- The deep intraterrestrial biosphere
- Iron, nitrogen, phosphorus and zinc cycling and consequences for primary productivity in the oceans
- Mechanisms and environmental impact of microbial metal reduction
- New insights into the physiology and regulation of the anaerobic oxidation of methane
- Biogeochemical roles of fungi in marine and estuarine habitats
- Role of micro-organisms in karstification
- Index
Summary
INTRODUCTION
Both basic and applied science issues drive our interests in the microbiology of the deep terrestrial subsurface. As an environment that is disconnected from the Earth's surface, the deep subsurface is less subject to variations in temperature and light and, in unsaturated zones, to intense gradients across interfaces created at the microscale level. These characteristics dictate an average growth rate that is very slow, up to thousands of years per cell division (Kieft & Brockman, 2001), and an ecosystem where change occurs over very long time scales (Fredrickson & Onstott, 2001). Thus, the subsurface is one of the most extreme environments on Earth, and identifying what limits life in the subsurface has value as a model for life on other planets (Chapelle et al., 2002; Nealson & Cox, 2002). The inadvertent release of contaminants from industrial processing plants and storage tanks, as well as the possibility of permanently depositing nuclear wastes deep below the Earth's surface (Pedersen, 2001), raise questions about how microbial activities might exacerbate or mitigate contamination problems in the subsurface.
The terrestrial subsurface is the habitat for diverse microbial communities that, together with the oceanic subsurface, may be the habitat for the largest proportion of Earth's biomass (Whitman et al., 1998). As subsurfaces are characterized by a range of physical and chemical properties, from fully aerated sedimentary shallow aquifers to deep igneous rocks devoid of oxygen and elevated in temperatures, their microbial communities are equally varied (Fredrickson & Fletcher, 2001).
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- Micro-organisms and Earth Systems , pp. 109 - 130Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005
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