ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY: FOR STUDENTS AND PROFESSIONALS

Environmental Microbiology is the study of microorganisms and the physical and chemical conditions influencing them. Environments are components of ecosystems. An ecosystem is a community of microorganisms and their physical and chemical environment that functions as an ecological unit.
The ecosphere or biosphere, constitute the totality of living organisms on Earth and the abiotic surroundings they inhabit. It can be divided into atmosphere, hydrosphere and litho-ecosphere to describe the portions of the global expense inhabited by living things in air, water and soil environments respectively. Microorganisms lives within the habitats of the ecospheres. The habitat is one component of a broader concept of the ecological niche, which include not only where an organism lives but also what it does there. The niche is the functional role of an organism within an ecosystem. Microorganisms may be autochthonous (or indigenous) or allochthonous or foreign.