Applied Microbiology

Microbial Diversity

The diversity of a microbial consortium can vary and change with environmental factors (operating parameters) like for example temperature, ammonium concentration and CO2 concentration. Different types of microbes can sometimes perform different functions and sometimes complement each other. Bacteria are the most diverse and abundant group of organisms on Earth. Attempts to describe bacterial diversity and abundance often yield impressive numbers. For example, there are reports that there is one billion times more individual bacteria on earth than stars in the universe, that the number of prokaryotic species exceeds that of all other species, that prokaryotic cells comprise the majority of all biomass, and that even the most hostile habitats are inhabited by bacteria.