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Bacteria—A link among ecosystem constituents

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Researches on Population Ecology

Abstract

Microbial ecology has undergone a revolution over the past two decades due to the numerous innovations in techniques, allowing bacteria to be detected more accurately by direct means. Thus, bacterial life can be distinguishedin situ by direct counting under epifluorescence microscopy; automatically counting and sizing by image analyzer equipped with epifluorescence microscopy or by use of flow cytometry; specific radioisotope techniques; and molecular techniques to detect specific taxa. All of these approaches do not require cultivation, which provides a biased view of bacterial communities in nature. Bacteria are abundant in aquatic environments and play important roles as links between dissolved nutrients and the grazers in the food web. The new techniques allow an evaluation of bacterial population dynamics and function in relation to other organisms of higher trophic levels. This mini review aims to show briefly the state-of-the-art in microbial ecology for ecologists concerned with organisms other than microbes, in order to develop further intensive study together with microbial ecologists.

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  1. Laboratory of Biology, School of Allied Medical Sciences, ITAN, Shinshu University, 390, Matsumoto, Japan

    K. Kato

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Kato, K. Bacteria—A link among ecosystem constituents. Res Popul Ecol 38, 185–190 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02515726

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02515726

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