Enzymes in the Environment: Activity, Ecology, and Applications
Features
Summary
The need to understand the biological processes that are important for essential aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem function has prompted much research into the field of ecological enzymology. This book presents the two broad areas of application in a compilation of reviews by 21 international experts in their respective fields. The first explores enzymatic activities to assess the processes or mechanisms that operate in a given system, such as the rhizosphere, plant leaves and shoots, soil surfaces, and biofilms. The second considers enzymes or microbial cells as sensors to detect microbial activity and stresses due to pollution, management, or climatic change in both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.
Table of Contents
Preface. Contributors. Enzyme Activities and Microbiological and Biochemical Processes in Soil. Ecology of Microbial Enzymes in Lake Ecosystems. Ecological Significance of Bacterial Enzymes in the Marine Environment. Enzymes and Microorganisms in the Rhizosphere. Enzymes in the Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Symbiosis. Microbes and Enzymes associated With Plant Surfaces. Microbial Enzymes in the Biocontrol of Plant Pathogens and Pests. Micorbiology and Enzymology of Carbon and Nitrogen Cycling. Enzyme and Microbial Dynamics of Litter Decomposition. Fungal Communities, Succession, Enzymes, and Decomposition. Enzyme Adsorption on Soil Mineral Surfaces and Consequences for the Catalytic Activity. Microbes and Enzymes in Biofilms. Search For and Discovery of Microbial Enzymes From Thermally Extreme Environments in the Ocean. Molecular Methods for Assessing and Manipulating the Diversity of Microbial Polulations and Processes. Bioindicators and Sensors of Soil Health and the Application of Geostatistics. Hydrolytic Enzyme Activities to Assess Soil Degradation and Recovery. Enzymatic Responses to Pollution in Sediments and Aquatic Systems. Microbial Dehalogenation Reactions in Microorganisms. Isolated Enzymes for the Transformation and Detoxification of Organic Pollutants. Enzyme-Mediated Transformations of Heavy metals/Metalloids: Applications in Bioremediation. Enzymes in Soil: Research and Developments in Measuring Activities. Index.
Editorial Reviews
"...highly complex environments are excellent[ly] illustrated in this book. .... 'Enzymes in the Environment' [is] equally recommended to the soil and environmental scientists, biochemists, enzymologists, microbiologists, toxicologists, geneticists, agriculturists, as well as to undergraduate and graduate students in all these scientific areas."
- Prof. Emil Dumitriu, Ph.D. (in IASI Polytechnic Magazine, Vol. 16, no. 114, Dec. 2004)
