Tag Archives: microbes

Bacteria and Decay

The life of bacteria is built around food. These micro-organisms don’t have traditional mouths to feed, but they eat, they digest, and they excrete waste as they break down their food into its more elemental components to facilitate absorption. We need decay to break down dead matter into basic substances to provide nutrients for new plants, to feed our soil, and promote life.

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Unlike bacteria, which are unicellular organisms the primary decomposer in many eco-systems is fungi and while bacteria are restricted to growing and feeding on the surfaces of organic matter, fungi can penetrate organic matter by releasing enzymes to break down the decaying material, after which it is absorbed as a natural nutrient.

Microbial Relationships

Microbes, especially bacteria, often engage in intimate symbiotic relationships with other larger organisms, either positive or negative. Some of these relationships are mutually beneficial (mutualism) while others can be damaging to the host (parasitism). If a micro-organism can cause disease it is known as a pathogen.

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These micro-organisms are microscopic (too small to be seem by the naked eye), mostly unicellular or live in a colony of cellular organisms. They include bacteria, fungi, archaea, protists, microscopic plants such as green algae and animals such as plankton and the planarian. Micro-biologists also include viruses, but they are considered non-living as their survival depends on a host cell’s genetic material to replicate as they adapt to their environment.

The ecology of microbes to one another and their surroundings is extraordinary with respect to the diversity of chemical and physical conditions that can be tolerated with regards to temperature, high concentration of salt or sugar, relative acidity and with or without the presence of oxygen.

A World Without Microbes

microbes

A world without bacteria may seem ideal at first. But the more we think about it, the more we realize that we cannot live without microbes.

There would be no food poisoning, no diarrhea, no coughs and colds, no sore throats, no tuberculosis, no cholera, no small pox, no polio, no sexually transmitted diseases. There would be no decay. Foods would not get spoiled and we would not need preservatives, refrigeration and wasteful packaging.

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But if nothing decays, what happens to all the plants, animals and people at the end of their life-cycle? They would be preserved forever.

Microbes are essential to humans and the environment, as they participate in the Earth’s carbon and nitrogen cycles, as well as fulfilling a vital role in our digestive and immune systems.

Although each individual microbe is an almost weightless, one-celled organism, microbes account for most of the planet’s biomass – the total weight of all living things. With their collective strength, microbes control every ecological process, from the decay of dead plants and animals to the production of oxygen.

No part of Earth escapes the influence of microbes, the oldest living organism. Self-sufficient, invisible, mysterious, deadly – and absolutely essential for all life, they are the Earth’s bacteria. No form of life is more important and no form of life is more fascinating. No other living thing combines their elegant simplicity with their incredibly complex role – bacteria keep us alive, supply our food and regulate our biosphere. We cannot live a day without them, they are our partners, even though some of them, under the right conditions, will kill us.  Read more…