Microorganisms have critical roles in the functioning of environment, structural formation, and plant interactions, both positive and negative. These roles are important in reestablishing function and biodiversity in ecosystem restoration. This book will focus on topics where microbial ecology contributes to management, restoration and sustainability of the biosphere. Discussing current microbial ecology and environmental microbiology, it will review the role of microbial communities in ecosystem services, with examples from both natural and managed ecosystems. It also highlights the untold ways in which microbial communities influence environmental quality and sustainability.

This book integrates research methods and techniques relevant to understanding forest ecology, with a particular focus on those that are relevant to practical conservation and sustainable forest management.

Next Generation Sequencing and Microbial Ecology is a very timely and succinct compilation of the current developments in nucleic acid sequencing methods and their applications especially in helping understand microbial interaction and their form, community structure and function in various biotic communities. The book introduces the readers to different methods of sequencing DNA - from conventional to next generation sequencing, and discussing invariably the limitation and advantages of each of these methods, with respect to microbial ecology studies. The book highlights several gene families which have been favourably taken up in the recent past for the purpose of dissecting the communities and their possible roles. In this book, we also discuss some very novel aspects of microbial ecology, like "the metagenomics approach", which scientist have been able to work out mainly by culture independent approaches. We will highlight how this is helping us understand the structural and functional aspect i.e., "who is out there" and "what they are doing" in a number of different environments and the ecological significance of these aspects. We hope that the book will be useful for students, researchers and teachers as a reference for choosing an appropriate sequencing approach, with respect to the gene family and analytical methods for studying microbes and their role in a community/ecosystem. Suggestions for improving the book are cordially invited.

The growing need for increased food production globally has led the farmers and scientists equally to devise means to increase plant productivity through several practices, including disease management. A number of plant diseases caused by bacteria have huge economic impact on global crop productivity. Although chemical control practices may be effective, they pose a threat to the environment and to the food chain. With the discovery of antibiotics in the 1940s, the concept of using bacteriophages was abandoned. However, its use has re-emerged, and is a rapidly growing area for controlling bacterial plant pathogens. In this book, we present the historical and recent developments, concepts, factors, challenges and concerns of using bacteriophages for plant disease control. We hope that the book will be a valuable reference for students, researchers, teachers as well as agriculturists while choosing environmentally safe and sustainable plant pest management techniques.