With the sharp increase in population and modernization of society, environmental pollution
resulting from petroleum hydrocarbons has increased, resulting in an urgent need for …

Understanding the mechanisms controlling community diversity, functions, succession, and
biogeography is a central, but poorly understood, topic in ecology, particularly in microbial …

Disease suppressive soils typically develop after a disease outbreak due to the subsequent
assembly of protective microbiota in the rhizosphere. The role of the plant immune system in …

Inertness and the indiscriminate use of synthetic polymers leading to increased land and
water pollution are of great concern. Plastic is the most useful synthetic polymer, employed …

The exchange of nutrients, energy and carbon between soil organic matter, the soil
environment, aquatic systems and the atmosphere is important for agricultural productivity …

Advances in high-throughput sequencing and 'omics technologies are revolutionizing
studies of naturally occurring microbial communities. Comprehensive investigations of …

The recent rate of emergence of pathogenic fungi that are resistant to the limited number of
commonly used antifungal agents is unprecedented. The azoles, for example, are used not …

Once in the ocean, plastics are rapidly colonized by complex microbial communities. Factors
affecting the development and composition of these communities are still poorly understood …

Abstract The Deepwater Horizon oil spill constituted an ecosystem-level injury in the
northern Gulf of Mexico. Much oil spread at 1100–1300 m depth, contaminating and …

Microorganisms are major drivers of elemental cycling in the biosphere. Determining the
abundance of microbial functional traits involved in the transformation of nutrients, including …