Microbial diversity ecosystem function

Torsvik V, 0vreas L. (2002) Microbial diversity and function in soil From genes to ecosystems. Curr Opin Microbiol 5 240-245. 

Bardgett RD, Shine A (1999) Linkages between plant litter diversity, soil microbial biomass and ecosystem function in temperate grasslands. Soil Biol Biochem 31 317-321... 

Finlay BJ, Maberley SC, Cooper JI. 1997. Microbial diversity and ecosystem function. Oikos 80 209-213. 

Estimates of the diversity of DNA-based soil organisms so far have not been able to answer the questions concerning the functions of soil ecosystem, although, they can serve as an efficient tool for explaining DNA diversity in situ. The presence of a certain microbial gene does not assure that the metabolic process, for which the gene is responsibile, is carried out. The challenge for molecular techniques is to provide quantitative measures for microbial cells and activities rather than Just qualitative measures. To this purpose, DNA-based techniques... 

The richness of a microbial community refers to the genetic diversity or the number of different species in an environment (Bell et al., 2005). Bell et al. (2005) stated that microbial communities that are rich contribute to the better functioning of an ecosystem because overall more resources are used. Losure et al. (2007) described this as the fact that increased richness leads to increased niche complementarity. When a greater variety of different species are present, this implies a more efficient use of resources such as nutrients. The opportunities for an invader to find... 

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