Desert Gardens

» hzaki1985 - microorganisms

what are the enviromental factors that effect microorganisms?explain.

-- posted by hzaki1985

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» Robert Dailey - microorganisms

In response to microorganisms posted by hzaki1985:
Of course, I'll explain. Thank you for asking.
Microorganisms can be animal (amoebae, protozoa, etc.), plants or fungal in origin.
Some microorganisms are anaerobic, which means they can exist without oxygen. These microorganisms excrete things like methane, other gases, unpleasant odors, and chemicals that are not particularly desireable, especially in the breakdown of organic materials to be used for food production. Instead of a nutrient-rich by-product (such as viable soil), they produce a mushy mixture unsuiitable for growing organisms.
Good examples of anaerobic microorganisms are those that live in the gut of all vertebrates, and most invertebreates.
Anaerobic processes are used in wastewater and sewage treatment systems.
Aerobic microorganisms are those microbes that must have oxygen to survive. Their byproducts are high in nutrients and minerals necessary for plant growth. They also do not produce methane and other undesireable gases. (That's why a compost pile with a properly managed environment actually smells good, not bad). Examples of aerobic microbes are those that live in rich soil or properly prepared compost.
So one of the environmental factors that affect microorganisms is oxygen (or the lack of it). Another environmental factor is food. All living organisms require food. In the case of microbes, food could be decaying animals, vegetation, or fungi, excretions from larger invertebrates (such as castings from earthworms),and, when they die (as they do by the millions in every spoonful of soil), the bodies of microbes themselves.
Other factors are also necessary. Both aerobic and anaerobic microbes need water.
Since microbes are the first step in the natural breakdown of all organic material (by this I mean anything, whether plant, animal or fungi - anything that was once alive and has died), environmental factors are primary in the consideration of microbial life.
In arid and desert portions of the world, natural mummification of dead plants and animals occur regularly because there is no water or not enough water to sustain microbial life, or the ground itself has become so compacted that oxygen cannot penetrate it, or the existence of both those conditions.
In areas of high humidity, such as the Deep South of the U.S., anaerobes are very common because the high amounts of water penetrating the soil tend to exclude oxygen. That's where swamp gas comes from (the production of methane gas from anaerobic microbes).
In developing good soil, aerobic microbes need to be encouraged by controlling their environment (that is providing flow of oxygen molecules and water molecules). This is merely duplicating (and speeding up) the natural process of decay and regeneration, which we can see occurring naturally on forest floors.
In the past, large agrarian operations used artificial fertilizers to increase the nutrients accessible to plants. By and large, this is still the acceptable practice. The problem with artificial (and some organic) fertilizers is that they bypass the microbial process. As a result, the more the micribial process is bypassed, the fewer microbes continue to exist in the soil. As a result, the soil has no chance to regenerate through natural processes, and more and more fertilizers are required to maintain crop production.
Thus, users of artificial fertilizers are also affecting the environment, by discouraging the natural process and limiting microbial action in the soil.
The question you asked has far reaching implications -too many to be answered in this short reply.
However, I hope this gives you a fairly good overview of some of the major environmental factors that affect microorganisms.

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