EDITORIAL

Microbial ecology is a scientific field that developed during the second half of the twentieth century. As a cohesive branch of the microbiological sciences, it blossomed in the 1960s during an era of public concern with environmental issues [1]. The publication, in 1962, of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson brought about changes in the perception of nature. The concepts which microbial ecology represents, however, were not new; they were already evident in the pioneering microbio-logical research of Beijerinck, Winogradsky and others in the late nineteenth century. As a scientific discipline with its own identity, microbial ecology arose from the integration of microbiology and ecology. The principles of general ecology, so brilliantly developed throughout the twentieth century, were based mainly on studies of animals and plants. Ecological studies, however, rarely considered the role of microorganisms in ecosystems, or whether ecological theory could also be applied to those tiny creatures. Nevertheless, only when the principles of ecology can be applied to all living things will they gain universal validity. Overlooking microorganisms in eco-logical studies means disregarding ‘‘the unseen majori-ty’ ’ [7], as microorganisms make up most of the biomass on Earth. Furthermore, since they were the only in-habitants of the planet for more than three quarters of life’s history, microorganisms play unique roles in eco-systems. The inclusion of prokaryotes in global ecolog-ical studies would almost double estimates of carbon stored in living organisms, not to mention those of ni-trogen and phosphorous. In fact, prokaryotes comprise the largest pool of those elements in the biota [7]. The first textbook with the words ‘‘microbial ecology’’ in the title, authored by Thomas D. Brock, was published in 1966 [3]. It was followed by Sheldon Aaronson’s Ex-perimental Microbial Ecology, in 1970, and Martin Alex-ander’s Microbial Ecology, in 1971. Since then, many other scientists have contributed – either directly or indi-rectly – to the development of the subject to its curren