Why are bacteria important in the ecological balance?
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Bacteria are involved in decomposition, fixing Nitrates into the soil and digesting plant matter in the guts of herbivorous animals, for starters. Without this crops wouldn't grow, animals couldn't eat them and dead bodies wouldn't break down.
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Maybe. I'd say yes, actually. Bacteria do a lot, and without them many of your essential body processes would be inefficient.\n\nAs far as I can tell, bacteria break down certain products. I'm not sure which, where, and how, but I'm fairly certain they do. I guess it depends on how quickly the bacteria were restored, but I'm fairly sure they're essential for survival.
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Water fleas are important in examining water quality because they are ubiquitous organisms that are very sensitive to environmental stress, they are easy to culture and feed, and you do not need an IACUC permit to possess them.
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the producers in an ecosystem are the plants, they convert light energy into organic chemicals, that higher levels(herbivores,carnivores) eat. also in aquatic ecosystems the producers are photosynthetic bacteria or protozoa.
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Ecosystem-balance!!!!!!
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Saprophytic Bacteria and Saprophytic Fungi.We can't do without them.
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Each ecosystem has what is called a "carrying capacity" for the organisms. This is where birth rate = deaths.\n\nThis is because organism's grow in number until the demand or limit of one (or more) factors for life become exceeded.\n\nSome factors are things like water, living space, nutrient source (food) and waste build up.\n\nPopulations can exceed the carrying capacity for a short time but eventually the limit of the environment brings the population back down.
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Diversity of environment, also called biodiversity, relates to the number of different species of flora and fauna in the environment. Biodiversity is important not because more species looks pretty, but because more biodiversity is healthier for the ecosystem, specifically the food chain. Consider a simple food chain that includes grass, rabbits, and coyotes. If all the rabbits die from disease, the coyotes are hopeless. But if there were more biodiversity, coyotes may also rely on raccoons for food. Forests have good biodiversity, especially the tropical rain forests around the world.
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because warm temperatures encourage the action of bacteria
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The study of bacteria reveals ways to prevent infections, slow them so ppl have more time, and even cure them. We could all die without it. Bacterial infections are becoming more common as time passes.
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there are bio-organisms that feed your plant in the street water that are cleaned from tap water and not drawn up with evaporation. what seems unhealthy to us is wonderful for the plant life
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On Earth, soil is generally considered to be weathered material capable of supporting plant life.[2] Soil forms through a variety of soil formation processes, and includes weathered rock "parent material" combined with dead and living organic matter and air. Soils are vital to all life on Earth because they support the growth of plants, which supply food and oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide and nitrogen.\n\nIntroduction\nBecause of it's position in the landscape and its dynamic physical, chemical, and biologic functions, soil is among our most important natural resources. Indeed, engineers, agronomists, chemists, geologists, geographers, biologists, microbiologists, sylviculturists, sanitarians, archaeologists, and specialists in regional planning, all depend on, and contribute to, knowledge of soils. While the general concept of soil is well established, the definition of soil varies, hinging on the perspective of the discipline or occupation employing it as a resource.\n\nSoil occupies the pedosphere, one of Earth's spheres that the geosciences use to conceptually organise the Earth. This is the conceptual perspective of pedology and edaphology, the two main branches of soil science. Both branches apply a combination of soil physics, soil chemistry, and soil biology. Due to the numerous interactions between the biosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere that are hosted within the pedosphere, more integrated, less soil-centric concepts are also valuable. Many concepts essential to understanding soil come from individuals not identifiable strictly as soil scientists. This highlights the interdisciplinary nature of soil concepts.\n\nThe understanding of soil is incomplete. Despite the duration of mankind's dependence on and curiosity about soil, exploring the diversity and dynamic of this opaque resource continues to reward. New and refreshing avenues of soil research are compelled by our need to understand soil in the context of climate change [3], greenhouse gases [4] [5], and carbon sequestration. [6]\n\nVasily V. Dokuchaev, a Russian geographer, is credited with identifying soil as a resource whose distinctness and complexity deserved to be separated conceptually from geology and crop production and treated as a whole.\n\nPreviously, soil had been considered a product of physicochemical transformations of rocks, a dead substrate from which plants derive nutritious mineral elements. Soil and bedrock were in fact equated. Dokuchaev considers the soil as a natural body having its own genesis and its own history of development, a body with complex and multiform processes taking place within it. The soil is considered as different from bedrock. The latter becomes soil under the influence of a series of soil-formation factors (climate, vegetation, country, relief and age). According to him, soil should be called the "daily" or outward horizons of rocks regardless of the type; they are changed naturally by the common effect of water, air and various kinds of living and dead organisms. [7] \n\nWhat is soil?\nSoil classification\nMain article: soil classification \nSoil classification is a contentious subject, from the structure of the classification system itself, to the definitions of classes and types, and finally in the application in the field. Every classification system starts with its own individual definition of soil. The essential problem is that soils do not reproduce or have DNA like living organisms, so no "objective" criteria can be used to choose among classifications. The most qualified specialists in the world can and do spend hours during a field trip at each soil profile, arguing about the classification. Yet, in a well-constructed system, the different names refer to similar concepts, so that interpretations do not vary widely.\n\nThe Unified Soil Classification System (or USCS) is used in engineering, geology and soil science disciplines to describe the texture, grain size,
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Microorganisms (soil bacteria) are the most important component of any soil. They dissolve rock particles and release nutrients to the plants through decomposition. The microorganisms release carbon dioxide gas into the film of water surrounding soil particles, making the water slightly acid. This causes it to react with the rock particles and dissolve them, providing a slow, steady release of nutrients.\n\nAll microorganisms decompose decayed vegetation or other microorganisms. The decayed vegetation, called humus, is the basis for soil life. Without humus, we get no naturally formed nitrogen, and plants become weak and more susceptible to insect attack. Humus has other beneficial effects besides feeding soil microorganisms. It mechanically loosens the soil itself and creates a texture called good tilth.\n\nWhen soil has good tilth, it is soft, porous and easy to work and crumbles easily into fine pieces. Water penetrates the soil better and the soil also holds more water.\n\nTilth prevents the formation of hard crusts on the soil's surface. It allows plants to put out larger root systems easily. When there is lots of air in the soil, microorganisms flourish and speed mineral release. Good tilth allows delicate seedlings to get a good start. Focusing on the basics: \n\nAbundant Soil Microorganisms \nImproving Humus and Tilth \nis the first step and the foundation for long-lived successful reclamation, and restoration of the soil ecosystem.
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Microbiologists are hunting all over the world for bacteria with amazing abilities.  ( I recently answered a question about the discovery of bacteria that extract gold from seawater).\n\nChances are, your household already contains the products of bacteria.  The enzymes in detergent, yogurt, buttermilk, and vitamin supplements and many products are produced by bacteria or fungi.\n\nBelow are two links to some current uses of microbes.\n\nI have no doubt that scientists could use bacteria to produce energy from waste.  In fact methane (natural gas) is  a fuel that can already be produced by microbial decomposition.
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Not all food chains start with plants. The primary producers in geothermal vents are chemosynthetic bacteria and "worms."
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Well, not to sure about your question... so I'll do my best.\n\nPositive interactions between microbes would be ones that cause a general benefit.  Like a bacteria excreting a certain amino acid that another bacteria would need in order to survive.\n\nNegative interaction would be microbes causing a detriment to each other.  Pencillium notatum generates an antibiotic naturally, causing a harmful environment to some bacteria.\n\nSymbiosis is two organisms living together in harmony.  If you refference Margulis's endosymbiont hypothesis, a large microbe, say an amoeba engulfs a photosynthetic bacteria.  The amoeba provides a safe location for the bacteria, and the bacteria provides energy to the amoeba.\n\nAntagonism... not to sure about this one.  Probably something of a parasitic interaction.
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There are many reasons microbiologists are needed in the oil and gas industries.  For one, there are bacteria that can live in those substances and use them for consumption.  There are bacteria that live in jet fuel as well.  As long as there is some type of nutrition available for the microorganisms, they will thrive and reproduce.  These microbiologists help by testing samples for microbial growth.  Did you know that certain microbial growth in diesel fuel can produce plant life.  I've worked out in the oilfield and have seen it first hand.  I now have a degree in Biology and am working on a Masters Degree.  \nThese same microbiologists are also working on fuel alternatives using bacteria to produce ethanol through fermentation.  They can get it through citrus fruits to mass produce but it is hard for them to breakdown cellulose so they are trying to engineer a new type of bacteria that will be able to break down the cellulose and create more ethanol.  This is what I am currently doing research on.  Cool huh.