Microbially Mediated Processes in Environmental Chemistry
Microbes alter environmental conditions through their metabolic activities which leads to changes in chemical equilibria. Thus microbes affect indirectly chemical processes like precipitation and dissolution, adsorption and desorption, oxidation and reduction, protonation and dissociation. Chemical...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | deu |
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Swiss Chemical Society
1986-05-01
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| Series: | CHIMIA |
| Online Access: | https://www.chimia.ch/chimia/article/view/9728 |
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| Summary: | Microbes alter environmental conditions through their metabolic activities which leads to changes in chemical equilibria. Thus microbes affect indirectly chemical processes like precipitation and dissolution, adsorption and desorption, oxidation and reduction, protonation and dissociation. Chemical compounds which can serve the microbes’ needs for nutrients and energy are the primary prerequisite for microbial action per se and many geochemical events are influenced by concentration changes of metabolic substrates and products. – Sediments of eutrophic hardwater lakes offer ecosystems well-suited for microbial investigations. The short supply of oxidants and the almost unlimited organic «reducing power» cause a wealth of microbially mediated reactions and corresponding catalytic capabilities in numerous genera of bacteria. Understanding their interactions with each other and with a seasonally changing environment is a prerequisite to evaluate their role as mediators of geochemical reactions. Results from investigations of this kind have direct practical and theoretical implications for todays lake restoration projects. – In order to assess microbially mediated catalysis within sediments as a driving mechanism for the cycling of elements through their many specialized metabolic pathways, we need to better understand: The microbial habitats within sediments; the kind of microbes present and their interaction with each other and their surroundings; the influence of thermodynamic constraints on microbial existence; the microbial behavior towards transient environmental conditions; and the efficiency of microbes as biological diffusion barriers or diffusion promotors at the sediment-water interface. – In this presentation I will summarize our views on a few basic questions of environmental microbiology: Where do microbes live in sediments? How do they live where they are? What do they do to the environment? It should soon become clear to the reader that we feel the best approach to understanding biochemical processes in lake sediments must be through interdisciplinary studies involving microbiologists, chemists, and geologists.
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| ISSN: | 0009-4293 2673-2424 |