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89-424: The benthic region of the ocean begins at the shore line ( intertidal or littoral zone ) and extends downward along the surface of the continental shelf out to sea. Thus, the region incorporates a great variety of physical conditions differing in: depth, light penetration and pressure. Depending on the water-body, the benthic zone may include areas that are only a few inches below the surface. The continental shelf

178-560: A horizontal gene transfer process referred to as natural transformation . Some species form extraordinarily resilient spores , but for bacteria this is a mechanism for survival, not reproduction. Under optimal conditions bacteria can grow extremely rapidly and their numbers can double as quickly as every 20 minutes. Most living things that are visible to the naked eye in their adult form are eukaryotes , including humans . However, many eukaryotes are also microorganisms. Unlike bacteria and archaea , eukaryotes contain organelles such as

267-494: A decrease in benthic macroinvertebrate biomass, which lead to the disappearance of food sources into the substrate. Because the benthic system regulates energy in aquatic ecosystems, studies have been made of the mechanisms of the benthic zone in order to better understand the ecosystem. Benthic diatoms have been used by the European Union's Water Framework Directive (WFD) to establish ecological quality ratios that determined

356-413: A few extremely rare exceptions, such as Thiomargarita namibiensis . Bacteria function and reproduce as individual cells, but they can often aggregate in multicellular colonies . Some species such as myxobacteria can aggregate into complex swarming structures, operating as multicellular groups as part of their life cycle , or form clusters in bacterial colonies such as E.coli . Their genome

445-454: A healthy animal, and cause illness. Based on these experiments, he devised criteria for establishing a causal link between a microorganism and a disease and these are now known as Koch's postulates . Although these postulates cannot be applied in all cases, they do retain historical importance to the development of scientific thought and are still being used today. The discovery of microorganisms such as Euglena that did not fit into either

534-494: A host they are known as pathogens and then they are sometimes referred to as microbes . Microorganisms play critical roles in Earth's biogeochemical cycles as they are responsible for decomposition and nitrogen fixation . Bacteria use regulatory networks that allow them to adapt to almost every environmental niche on earth. A network of interactions among diverse types of molecules including DNA, RNA, proteins and metabolites,

623-502: A large group of photosynthetic eukaryotes that include many microscopic organisms. Although some green algae are classified as protists , others such as charophyta are classified with embryophyte plants, which are the most familiar group of land plants. Algae can grow as single cells, or in long chains of cells. The green algae include unicellular and colonial flagellates , usually but not always with two flagella per cell, as well as various colonial, coccoid , and filamentous forms. In

712-435: A large industrial scale by microbial fermentation include acetic acid produced by acetic acid bacteria such as Acetobacter aceti , butyric acid made by the bacterium Clostridium butyricum , lactic acid made by Lactobacillus and other lactic acid bacteria , and citric acid produced by the mould fungus Aspergillus niger . Microorganisms are used to prepare bioactive molecules such as Streptokinase from

801-520: A membrane as in a eukaryote, and the presence of endosymbionts. This is seen to be the first plausible evolutionary form of microorganism, showing a stage of development from the prokaryote to the eukaryote. Archaea are prokaryotic unicellular organisms, and form the first domain of life in Carl Woese 's three-domain system . A prokaryote is defined as having no cell nucleus or other membrane bound - organelle . Archaea share this defining feature with

890-431: A mutualistic symbiosis between the two. However, these signals can be eavesdropped by other microorganisms, such as the soil bacteria , Myxococcus xanthus , which preys on other bacteria. Eavesdropping, or the interception of signals from unintended receivers, such as plants and microorganisms, can lead to large-scale, evolutionary consequences. For example, signaler-receiver pairs, like plant-microorganism pairs, may lose

979-416: A narrow region known as the rhizosphere that supports many microorganisms known as the root microbiome . These microorganisms in the root microbiome are able to interact with each other and surrounding plants through signals and cues. For example, mycorrhizal fungi are able to communicate with the root systems of many plants through chemical signals between both the plant and fungi . This results in

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1068-590: A pH of 2.0 or less. Piezophiles thrive at very high pressures : up to 1,000–2,000 atm , down to 0 atm as in a vacuum of space . A few extremophiles such as Deinococcus radiodurans are radioresistant , resisting radiation exposure of up to 5k Gy . Extremophiles are significant in different ways. They extend terrestrial life into much of the Earth's hydrosphere , crust and atmosphere , their specific evolutionary adaptation mechanisms to their extreme environment can be exploited in biotechnology , and their very existence under such extreme conditions increases

1157-496: A relatively fast rate of evolution. Most microorganisms can reproduce rapidly, and bacteria are also able to freely exchange genes through conjugation , transformation and transduction , even between widely divergent species. This horizontal gene transfer , coupled with a high mutation rate and other means of transformation, allows microorganisms to swiftly evolve (via natural selection ) to survive in new environments and respond to environmental stresses . This rapid evolution

1246-437: A remnant genome. Like bacteria, plant cells have cell walls , and contain organelles such as chloroplasts in addition to the organelles in other eukaryotes. Chloroplasts produce energy from light by photosynthesis , and were also originally symbiotic bacteria . Unicellular eukaryotes consist of a single cell throughout their life cycle. This qualification is significant since most multicellular eukaryotes consist of

1335-478: A single cell called a zygote only at the beginning of their life cycles. Microbial eukaryotes can be either haploid or diploid , and some organisms have multiple cell nuclei . Unicellular eukaryotes usually reproduce asexually by mitosis under favorable conditions. However, under stressful conditions such as nutrient limitations and other conditions associated with DNA damage, they tend to reproduce sexually by meiosis and syngamy . Of eukaryotic groups,

1424-482: A subfield of microbiology is virology , the study of viruses. Single-celled microorganisms were the first forms of life to develop on Earth, approximately 3.5 billion years ago. Further evolution was slow, and for about 3 billion years in the Precambrian eon , (much of the history of life on Earth ), all organisms were microorganisms. Bacteria, algae and fungi have been identified in amber that

1513-573: A well-oxygenated filter bed such as a slow sand filter . Anaerobic digestion by methanogens generate useful methane gas as a by-product. Microorganisms are used in fermentation to produce ethanol , and in biogas reactors to produce methane . Scientists are researching the use of algae to produce liquid fuels , and bacteria to convert various forms of agricultural and urban waste into usable fuels . Microorganisms are used to produce many commercial and industrial chemicals, enzymes and other bioactive molecules. Organic acids produced on

1602-977: A wide range of chemicals and enzymes. They are invaluable in research as model organisms . They have been weaponised and sometimes used in warfare and bioterrorism . They are vital to agriculture through their roles in maintaining soil fertility and in decomposing organic matter. They also have applications in aquaculture, such as in biofloc technology . Microorganisms are used in a fermentation process to make yoghurt , cheese , curd , kefir , ayran , xynogala , and other types of food. Fermentation cultures provide flavour and aroma, and inhibit undesirable organisms. They are used to leaven bread , and to convert sugars to alcohol in wine and beer . Microorganisms are used in brewing , wine making , baking , pickling and other food -making processes. These depend for their ability to clean up water contaminated with organic material on microorganisms that can respire dissolved substances. Respiration may be aerobic, with

1691-596: Is 220 million years old, which shows that the morphology of microorganisms has changed little since at least the Triassic period. The newly discovered biological role played by nickel , however – especially that brought about by volcanic eruptions from the Siberian Traps – may have accelerated the evolution of methanogens towards the end of the Permian–Triassic extinction event . Microorganisms tend to have

1780-475: Is a gently sloping benthic region that extends away from the land mass. At the continental shelf edge, usually about 200 metres (660 ft) deep, the gradient greatly increases and is known as the continental slope. The continental slope drops down to the deep sea floor. The deep-sea floor is called the abyssal plain and is usually about 4,000 metres (13,000 ft) deep. The ocean floor is not all flat but has submarine ridges and deep ocean trenches known as

1869-400: Is above the spring high-tide line and is covered by water only during storms, and an intertidal zone, which lies between the high and low tidal extremes. Along most shores , the intertidal zone can be clearly separated into the following subzones: high tide zone, middle tide zone, and low tide zone. The intertidal zone is one of a number of marine biomes or habitats , including estuaries ,

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1958-561: Is advanced through activities including harvesting fisheries with drag nets and a neglect of the sensitivity of intertidal zones. Microbes A microorganism , or microbe , is an organism of microscopic size, which may exist in its single-celled form or as a colony of cells . The possible existence of unseen microbial life was suspected from ancient times, such as in Jain scriptures from sixth century BC India. The scientific study of microorganisms began with their observation under

2047-438: Is considered to be one of the fathers of microbiology . He was the first in 1673 to discover and conduct scientific experiments with microorganisms, using simple single-lensed microscopes of his own design. Robert Hooke , a contemporary of Leeuwenhoek, also used microscopy to observe microbial life in the form of the fruiting bodies of moulds . In his 1665 book Micrographia , he made drawings of studies, and he coined

2136-507: Is high in oceans, deep sea-vents, river sediment and an acidic river, suggesting that many eukaryotic microbial communities may yet be discovered. The fungi have several unicellular species, such as baker's yeast ( Saccharomyces cerevisiae ) and fission yeast ( Schizosaccharomyces pombe ). Some fungi, such as the pathogenic yeast Candida albicans , can undergo phenotypic switching and grow as single cells in some environments, and filamentous hyphae in others. The green algae are

2225-414: Is important in medicine, as it has led to the development of multidrug resistant pathogenic bacteria , superbugs , that are resistant to antibiotics . A possible transitional form of microorganism between a prokaryote and a eukaryote was discovered in 2012 by Japanese scientists. Parakaryon myojinensis is a unique microorganism larger than a typical prokaryote, but with nuclear material enclosed in

2314-463: Is incorrect to assume that diseases appear one by one in humans. Disease infects by spreading from one person to another. This infection occurs through seeds that are so small they cannot be seen but are alive. In 1546 , Girolamo Fracastoro proposed that epidemic diseases were caused by transferable seedlike entities that could transmit infection by direct or indirect contact, or even without contact over long distances. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

2403-441: Is more available energy in the localized ecosystem. Also, marine vegetation can grow to much greater sizes than in the other three intertidal subregions due to the better water coverage. The water is shallow enough to allow plenty of sunlight to reach the vegetation to allow substantial photosynthetic activity, and the salinity is at almost normal levels. This area is also protected from large predators such as fish because of

2492-464: Is not easy to map or observe these organisms and their habitats, and most modern observations are made using remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs), and rarely submarines . Benthic macroinvertebrates have many important ecological functions, such as regulating the flow of materials and energy in river ecosystems through their food web linkages. Because of this correlation between flow of energy and nutrients, benthic macroinvertebrates have

2581-408: Is only covered by the highest of the high tides, and spends much of its time as terrestrial habitat. The high intertidal zone borders on the splash zone (the region above the highest still-tide level, but which receives wave splash). On shores exposed to heavy wave action , the intertidal zone will be influenced by waves, as the spray from breaking waves will extend the intertidal zone. Depending on

2670-435: Is planned. Intertidal zone The intertidal zone or foreshore is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide; in other words, it is the part of the littoral zone within the tidal range . This area can include several types of habitats with various species of life , such as sea stars , sea urchins , and many species of coral with regional differences in biodiversity. Sometimes it

2759-413: Is possible to watch ecological succession over years rather than decades. The burrowing invertebrates that make up large portions of sandy beach ecosystems are known to travel relatively great distances in cross-shore directions as beaches change on the order of days, semilunar cycles, seasons, or years. The distribution of some species has been found to correlate strongly with geomorphic datums such as

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2848-653: Is recommended in the European Union benthic monitoring program (by Kelly 1998 for the United Kingdom then in the EU and for the EU as a whole by CEN 2003 and CEN 2004) and in some United States programs (by Moulton et al. 2002). Benthic gross primary production (GPP) may be important in maintaining biodiversity hotspots in littoral zones in large lake ecosystems . However, the relative contributions of benthic habitats within specific ecosystems are poorly explored and more research

2937-497: Is referred to as the littoral zone or seashore , although those can be defined as a wider region. The intertidal zone also includes steep rocky cliffs , sandy beaches , bogs or wetlands (e.g., vast mudflats ). This area can be a narrow strip, such as in Pacific islands that have only a narrow tidal range, or can include many meters of shoreline where shallow beach slopes interact with high tidal excursion. The peritidal zone

3026-464: Is similar but somewhat wider, extending from above the highest tide level to below the lowest. Organisms in the intertidal zone are well-adapted to their environment, facing high levels of interspecific competition and the rapidly changing conditions that come with the tides . The intertidal zone is also home to several species from many different phyla ( Porifera , Annelida , Coelenterata , Mollusca , Arthropoda , etc.). The water that comes with

3115-695: Is teeming with life; the most notable difference between this subregion and the other three is that there is much more marine vegetation, especially seaweeds . There is also a great biodiversity. Organisms in this zone generally are not well adapted to periods of dryness and temperature extremes. Some of the organisms in this area are abalone , sea anemones , brown seaweed , chitons , crabs , green algae , hydroids , isopods , limpets , mussels , nudibranchs , sculpin , sea cucumber , sea lettuce , sea palms , starfish , sea urchins , shrimp , snails , sponges , surf grass , tube worms , and whelks . Creatures in this area can grow to larger sizes because there

3204-560: Is the New Zealand foreshore and seabed controversy . In legal discussions, the foreshore is often referred to as the wet-sand area . For privately owned beaches in the United States , some states such as Massachusetts use the low-water mark as the dividing line between the property of the State and that of the beach owner; however the public still has fishing, fowling, and navigation rights to

3293-504: Is usually a circular bacterial chromosome – a single loop of DNA , although they can also harbor small pieces of DNA called plasmids . These plasmids can be transferred between cells through bacterial conjugation . Bacteria have an enclosing cell wall , which provides strength and rigidity to their cells. They reproduce by binary fission or sometimes by budding , but do not undergo meiotic sexual reproduction . However, many bacterial species can transfer DNA between individual cells by

3382-948: Is utilised by the bacteria to achieve regulation of gene expression . In bacteria, the principal function of regulatory networks is to control the response to environmental changes, for example nutritional status and environmental stress. A complex organization of networks permits the microorganism to coordinate and integrate multiple environmental signals. Extremophiles are microorganisms that have adapted so that they can survive and even thrive in extreme environments that are normally fatal to most life-forms. Thermophiles and hyperthermophiles thrive in high temperatures . Psychrophiles thrive in extremely low temperatures. – Temperatures as high as 130 °C (266 °F), as low as −17 °C (1 °F) Halophiles such as Halobacterium salinarum (an archaean) thrive in high salt conditions , up to saturation. Alkaliphiles thrive in an alkaline pH of about 8.5–11. Acidophiles can thrive in

3471-516: The Charales , which are the algae most closely related to higher plants, cells differentiate into several distinct tissues within the organism. There are about 6000 species of green algae. Microorganisms are found in almost every habitat present in nature, including hostile environments such as the North and South poles , deserts , geysers , and rocks . They also include all the marine microorganisms of

3560-554: The animal or plant kingdoms, since they were photosynthetic like plants, but motile like animals, led to the naming of a third kingdom in the 1860s. In 1860 John Hogg called this the Protoctista , and in 1866 Ernst Haeckel named it the Protista . The work of Pasteur and Koch did not accurately reflect the true diversity of the microbial world because of their exclusive focus on microorganisms having direct medical relevance. It

3649-508: The cell nucleus , the Golgi apparatus and mitochondria in their cells . The nucleus is an organelle that houses the DNA that makes up a cell's genome. DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) itself is arranged in complex chromosomes . Mitochondria are organelles vital in metabolism as they are the site of the citric acid cycle and oxidative phosphorylation . They evolved from symbiotic bacteria and retain

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3738-495: The hadal zone . For comparison, the pelagic zone is the descriptive term for the ecological region above the benthos, including the water column up to the surface. At the other end of the spectrum, benthos of the deep ocean includes the bottom levels of the oceanic abyssal zone . For information on animals that live in the deeper areas of the oceans see aphotic zone . Generally, these include life forms that tolerate cool temperatures and low oxygen levels, but this depends on

3827-475: The human body , microorganisms make up the human microbiota , including the essential gut flora . The pathogens responsible for many infectious diseases are microbes and, as such, are the target of hygiene measures . The possible existence of microscopic organisms was discussed for many centuries before their discovery in the seventeenth century. By the 6th century BC , the Jains of present-day India postulated

3916-456: The microscope in the 1670s by Anton van Leeuwenhoek . In the 1850s, Louis Pasteur found that microorganisms caused food spoilage , debunking the theory of spontaneous generation . In the 1880s, Robert Koch discovered that microorganisms caused the diseases tuberculosis , cholera , diphtheria , and anthrax . Because microorganisms include most unicellular organisms from all three domains of life , they can be extremely diverse. Two of

4005-460: The neritic zone , the photic zone , and deep zones . Marine biologists divide the intertidal region into three zones (low, middle, and high), based on the overall average exposure of the zone. The low intertidal zone, which borders on the shallow subtidal zone, is only exposed to air at the lowest of low tides and is primarily marine in character. The mid intertidal zone is regularly exposed and submerged by average tides. The high intertidal zone

4094-400: The oceans and deep sea . Some types of microorganisms have adapted to extreme environments and sustained colonies; these organisms are known as extremophiles . Extremophiles have been isolated from rocks as much as 7 kilometres below the Earth's surface, and it has been suggested that the amount of organisms living below the Earth's surface is comparable with the amount of life on or above

4183-456: The poles to the equator , in deserts , geysers , rocks , and the deep sea . Some are adapted to extremes such as very hot or very cold conditions , others to high pressure , and a few, such as Deinococcus radiodurans , to high radiation environments. Microorganisms also make up the microbiota found in and on all multicellular organisms . There is evidence that 3.45-billion-year-old Australian rocks once contained microorganisms,

4272-432: The protists are most commonly unicellular and microscopic. This is a highly diverse group of organisms that are not easy to classify. Several algae species are multicellular protists, and slime molds have unique life cycles that involve switching between unicellular, colonial, and multicellular forms. The number of species of protists is unknown since only a small proportion has been identified. Protist diversity

4361-465: The water column ; even within the benthic zone variations in such factors as light penetration, temperature and salinity give rise to distinct differences, delineated vertically, in the groups of organisms supported. Many organisms adapted to deep-water pressure cannot survive in the upper parts of the water column: the pressure difference can be very significant (approximately one atmosphere for each 10 meters of water depth). Many have adapted to live on

4450-461: The L. 2971/01, the foreshore zone is defined as the area of the coast that might be reached by the maximum climbing of the waves on the coast (maximum wave run-up on the coast) in their maximum capacity (maximum referring to the "usually maximum winter waves" and of course not to exceptional cases, such as tsunamis ). The foreshore zone, a part of the exceptions of the law, is public, and permanent constructions are not allowed on it. In Italy, about half

4539-496: The ability to communicate with neighboring populations because of variability in eavesdroppers. In adapting to avoid local eavesdroppers, signal divergence could occur and thus, lead to the isolation of plants and microorganisms from the inability to communicate with other populations. A lichen is a symbiosis of a macroscopic fungus with photosynthetic microbial algae or cyanobacteria . Microorganisms are useful in producing foods, treating waste water, creating biofuels and

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4628-516: The ability to influence food resources on fish and other organisms in aquatic ecosystems . For example, the addition of a moderate amount of nutrients to a river over the course of several years resulted in increases in invertebrate richness, abundance, and biomass . These in turn resulted in increased food resources for native species of fish with insignificant alteration of the macroinvertebrate community structure and trophic pathways. The presence of macroinvertebrates such as Amphipoda also affect

4717-676: The bacteria with which they were once grouped. In 1990 the microbiologist Woese proposed the three-domain system that divided living things into bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes, and thereby split the prokaryote domain. Archaea differ from bacteria in both their genetics and biochemistry. For example, while bacterial cell membranes are made from phosphoglycerides with ester bonds, Achaean membranes are made of ether lipids . Archaea were originally described as extremophiles living in extreme environments , such as hot springs , but have since been found in all types of habitats . Only now are scientists beginning to realize how common archaea are in

4806-759: The bacterium Streptococcus , Cyclosporin A from the ascomycete fungus Tolypocladium inflatum , and statins produced by the yeast Monascus purpureus . Microorganisms are essential tools in biotechnology , biochemistry , genetics , and molecular biology . The yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Schizosaccharomyces pombe are important model organisms in science, since they are simple eukaryotes that can be grown rapidly in large numbers and are easily manipulated. They are particularly valuable in genetics , genomics and proteomics . Microorganisms can be harnessed for uses such as creating steroids and treating skin diseases. Scientists are also considering using microorganisms for living fuel cells , and as

4895-417: The benthic food chain ; most organisms in the benthic zone are scavengers or detritivores . Some microorganisms use chemosynthesis to produce biomass . Benthic organisms can be divided into two categories based on whether they make their home on the ocean floor or a few centimeters into the ocean floor. Those living on the surface of the ocean floor are known as epifauna . Those who live burrowed into

4984-963: The benthic zone. The microbes found in the benthic zone, specifically dinoflagellates and foraminifera , colonize quite rapidly on detritus matter while forming a symbiotic relationship with each other. In the deep sea, which covers 90–95% of the ocean floor, 90% of the total biomass is made up of prokaryotes. To release all the nutrients locked inside these microbes to the environment, viruses are important in making it available to other organisms. Modern seafloor mapping technologies have revealed linkages between seafloor geomorphology and benthic habitats, in which suites of benthic communities are associated with specific geomorphic settings. Examples include cold-water coral communities associated with seamounts and submarine canyons, kelp forests associated with inner shelf rocky reefs and rockfish associated with rocky escarpments on continental slopes. In oceanic environments, benthic habitats can also be zoned by depth. From

5073-408: The blood of cattle that were infected with anthrax always had large numbers of Bacillus anthracis . Koch found that he could transmit anthrax from one animal to another by taking a small sample of blood from the infected animal and injecting it into a healthy one, and this caused the healthy animal to become sick. He also found that he could grow the bacteria in a nutrient broth, then inject it into

5162-476: The broths at the beginning of his experiment. Nothing grew in the broths in the course of Pasteur's experiment. This meant that the living organisms that grew in such broths came from outside, as spores on dust, rather than spontaneously generated within the broth. Thus, Pasteur refuted the theory of spontaneous generation and supported the germ theory of disease . In 1876, Robert Koch (1843–1910) established that microorganisms can cause disease. He found that

5251-436: The deposition of organic matter, and bacterial communities. The amount of material sinking to the ocean floor can average 307,000 aggregates per m per day. This amount will vary on the depth of the benthos, and the degree of benthic-pelagic coupling. The benthos in a shallow region will have more available food than the benthos in the deep sea. Because of their reliance on it, microbes may become spatially dependent on detritus in

5340-451: The depth of the water. As with oceans, the benthic zone is the floor of the lake, composed of accumulated sunken organic matter . The littoral zone is the zone bordering the shore; light penetrates easily and aquatic plants thrive. The pelagic zone represents the broad mass of water, down as far as the depth to which no light penetrates. Benthos are the organisms that live in the benthic zone, and are different from those elsewhere in

5429-456: The dominance of certain types of algae in Benthic ecosystems as well. In addition, because benthic zones are influenced by the flow of dead organic material , there have been studies conducted on the relationship between stream and river water flows and the resulting effects on the benthic zone. Low flow events show a restriction in nutrient transport from benthic substrates to food webs, and caused

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5518-418: The earliest direct evidence of life on Earth. Microbes are important in human culture and health in many ways, serving to ferment foods and treat sewage , and to produce fuel , enzymes , and other bioactive compounds . Microbes are essential tools in biology as model organisms and have been put to use in biological warfare and bioterrorism . Microbes are a vital component of fertile soil . In

5607-647: The ecological status of lakes in the UK. Beginning research is being made on benthic assemblages to see if they can be used as indicators of healthy aquatic ecosystems. Benthic assemblages in urbanized coastal regions are not functionally equivalent to benthic assemblages in untouched regions. Ecologists are attempting to understand the relationship between heterogeneity and maintaining biodiversity in aquatic ecosystems. Benthic algae has been used as an inherently good subject for studying short term changes and community responses to heterogeneous conditions in streams. Understanding

5696-505: The ecosystems, yet forty-four percent of respondents state that there is a fair amount of knowledge used in those regions for fisheries. Intertidal zones are sensitive habitats with an abundance of marine species that can experience ecological hazards associated with tourism and human-induced environmental impacts . A variety of other threats that have been summarized by scientists include nutrient pollution , overharvesting , habitat destruction , and climate change . Habitat destruction

5785-426: The environment, with Thermoproteota (formerly Crenarchaeota) being the most common form of life in the ocean, dominating ecosystems below 150 metres (490 ft) in depth. These organisms are also common in soil and play a vital role in ammonia oxidation. The combined domains of archaea and bacteria make up the most diverse and abundant group of organisms on Earth and inhabit practically all environments where

5874-512: The existence of microorganisms as discovered by modern science. The earliest known idea to indicate the possibility of diseases spreading by yet unseen organisms was that of the Roman scholar Marcus Terentius Varro in a first-century BC book entitled On Agriculture in which he called the unseen creatures animalia minuta, and warns against locating a homestead near a swamp: … and because there are bred certain minute creatures that cannot be seen by

5963-434: The existence of tiny organisms called nigodas . These nigodas are said to be born in clusters; they live everywhere, including the bodies of plants, animals, and people; and their life lasts only for a fraction of a second. According to Mahavira , the 24th preacher of Jainism, the humans destroy these nigodas on a massive scale, when they eat, breathe, sit, and move. Many modern Jains assert that Mahavira's teachings presage

6052-440: The eyes, which float in the air and enter the body through the mouth and nose and they cause serious diseases. In The Canon of Medicine (1020), Avicenna suggested that tuberculosis and other diseases might be contagious. Turkish scientist Akshamsaddin mentioned the microbe in his work Maddat ul-Hayat (The Material of Life) about two centuries prior to Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 's discovery through experimentation: It

6141-590: The high tide strand and the water table outcrop. Since the foreshore is alternately covered by the sea and exposed to the air, organisms living in this environment must be adapted to both wet and dry conditions. Intertidal zone biomass reduces the risk of shoreline erosion from high intensity waves. Typical inhabitants of the intertidal rocky shore include sea urchins , sea anemones , barnacles , chitons , crabs , isopods , mussels , starfish , and many marine gastropod molluscs such as limpets and whelks . Sexual and asexual reproduction varies by inhabitants of

6230-420: The intertidal zones. Humans have historically used intertidal zones as foraged food sources during low tide . Migratory birds also rely on intertidal species for feeding areas because of low water habitats consisting of an abundance of mollusks and other marine species. As with the dry sand part of a beach, legal and political disputes can arise over the ownership and use of the foreshore. One recent example

6319-421: The littoral zone allow the utilization of nutrients supplied in high volume on a regular basis from the sea , which is actively moved to the zone by tides. The edges of habitats, in this case the land and sea, are themselves often significant ecosystems , and the littoral zone is a prime example. A typical rocky shore can be divided into a spray zone or splash zone (also known as the supratidal zone ), which

6408-498: The most immediate impact on microbiology by allowing for the cultivation of a wide range of microbes with wildly different physiologies. Winogradsky was the first to develop the concept of chemolithotrophy and to thereby reveal the essential role played by microorganisms in geochemical processes. He was responsible for the first isolation and description of both nitrifying and nitrogen-fixing bacteria . French-Canadian microbiologist Felix d'Herelle co-discovered bacteriophages and

6497-454: The ocean floor are known as infauna . Extremophiles, including piezophiles , which thrive in high pressures, may also live there. An example of benthos organism is Chorismus antarcticus . Sources of food for benthic communities can derive from the water column above these habitats in the form of aggregations of detritus , inorganic matter, and living organisms. These aggregations are commonly referred to as marine snow , and are important for

6586-409: The potential for extraterrestrial life . The nitrogen cycle in soils depends on the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen . This is achieved by a number of diazotrophs . One way this can occur is in the root nodules of legumes that contain symbiotic bacteria of the genera Rhizobium , Mesorhizobium , Sinorhizobium , Bradyrhizobium , and Azorhizobium . The roots of plants create

6675-470: The potential mechanisms involving benthic periphyton and the effects on heterogeneity within a stream may provide a better understanding of the structure and function of stream ecosystems. Periphyton populations suffer from high natural spatial variability while difficult accessibility simultaneously limits the practicable number of samples that can be taken. Targeting periphyton locations which are known to provide reliable samples – especially hard surfaces –

6764-661: The shallowest to the deepest are: the epipelagic (less than 200 meters), the mesopelagic (200–1,000 meters), the bathyal (1,000–4,000 meters), the abyssal (4,000–6,000 meters) and the deepest, the hadal (below 6,000 meters). The lower zones are in deep, pressurized areas of the ocean. Human impacts have occurred at all ocean depths, but are most significant on shallow continental shelf and slope habitats. Many benthic organisms have retained their historic evolutionary characteristics. Some organisms are significantly larger than their relatives living in shallower zones, largely because of higher oxygen concentration in deep water. It

6853-522: The shoreline is owned by the government but leased to private beach clubs called lidos. In the East African and West Indian Ocean, intertidal zone management is often neglected of being a priority due to there being no intent for collective economic productivity. According to workshops performing questionaries, it is stated that eighty-six percent of respondents believe mismanagement of mangrove and coastal ecosystems are due to lack of knowledge to steward

6942-550: The size of organism, gives an estimate of perhaps 1 trillion species on the planet, of which most would be microorganisms. Currently, only one-thousandth of one percent of that total have been described. Archael cells of some species aggregate and transfer DNA from one cell to another through direct contact, particularly under stressful environmental conditions that cause DNA damage . Like archaea, bacteria are prokaryotic – unicellular, and having no cell nucleus or other membrane-bound organelle. Bacteria are microscopic, with

7031-440: The substrate (bottom). In their habitats they can be considered as dominant creatures, but they are often a source of prey for Carcharhinidae such as the lemon shark . Because light does not penetrate very deep into ocean-water, the energy source for the benthic ecosystem is often marine snow . Marine snow is organic matter from higher up in the water column that drifts down to the depths. This dead and decaying matter sustains

7120-407: The substratum and topography of the shore, additional features may be noticed. On rocky shores , tide pools form in depressions that fill with water as the tide rises. Under certain conditions, such as those at Morecambe Bay , quicksand may form. This subregion is mostly submerged – it is only exposed at the point of low tide and for a longer period of time during extremely low tides. This area

7209-442: The surface. Extremophiles have been known to survive for a prolonged time in a vacuum , and can be highly resistant to radiation , which may even allow them to survive in space. Many types of microorganisms have intimate symbiotic relationships with other larger organisms; some of which are mutually beneficial ( mutualism ), while others can be damaging to the host organism ( parasitism ). If microorganisms can cause disease in

7298-488: The temperature is below +140 °C (284 °F). They are found in water , soil , air , as the microbiome of an organism, hot springs and even deep beneath the Earth's crust in rocks . The number of prokaryotes is estimated to be around five nonillion, or 5 × 10 , accounting for at least half the biomass on Earth. The biodiversity of the prokaryotes is unknown, but may be very large. A May 2016 estimate, based on laws of scaling from known numbers of species against

7387-423: The term cell . Louis Pasteur (1822–1895) exposed boiled broths to the air, in vessels that contained a filter to prevent particles from passing through to the growth medium , and also in vessels without a filter, but with air allowed in via a curved tube so dust particles would settle and not come in contact with the broth. By boiling the broth beforehand, Pasteur ensured that no microorganisms survived within

7476-526: The three domains, Archaea and Bacteria , only contain microorganisms. The third domain, Eukaryota , includes all multicellular organisms as well as many unicellular protists and protozoans that are microbes. Some protists are related to animals and some to green plants . Many multicellular organisms are also microscopic, namely micro-animals , some fungi , and some algae , but these are generally not considered microorganisms. Microorganisms can have very different habitats , and live everywhere from

7565-482: The tides can vary from brackish waters , fresh with rain , to highly saline and dry salt , with drying between tidal inundations. Wave splash can dislodge residents from the littoral zone. With the intertidal zone's high exposure to sunlight , the temperature can range from very hot with full sunshine to near freezing in colder climates. Some microclimates in the littoral zone are moderated by local features and larger plants such as mangroves . Adaptations in

7654-613: The wave action and the relatively shallow water. The intertidal region is an important model system for the study of ecology , especially on wave-swept rocky shores. The region contains a high diversity of species, and the zonation created by the tides causes species ranges to be compressed into very narrow bands. This makes it relatively simple to study species across their entire cross-shore range, something that can be extremely difficult in, for instance, terrestrial habitats that can stretch thousands of kilometres. Communities on wave-swept shores also have high turnover due to disturbance, so it

7743-625: The zone between low and high water. Other states such as California use the high-water mark. In the United Kingdom , the foreshore is generally deemed to be owned by the Crown , with exceptions for what are termed several fisheries , which can be historic deeds to title, dating back to King John 's time or earlier, and the Udal Law , which applies generally in Orkney and Shetland . In Greece , according to

7832-444: Was not until the work of Martinus Beijerinck and Sergei Winogradsky late in the nineteenth century that the true breadth of microbiology was revealed. Beijerinck made two major contributions to microbiology: the discovery of viruses and the development of enrichment culture techniques. While his work on the tobacco mosaic virus established the basic principles of virology, it was his development of enrichment culturing that had

7921-410: Was one of the earliest applied microbiologists. Microorganisms can be found almost anywhere on Earth . Bacteria and archaea are almost always microscopic, while a number of eukaryotes are also microscopic, including most protists , some fungi , as well as some micro-animals and plants. Viruses are generally regarded as not living and therefore not considered to be microorganisms, although

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