Reviews and Resources:Climate Change and Microbial Ecology: Current Research and Future Trends: BOOKS

Abstract

As one might expect, this new text nicely reviews important topics in environmental microbiology research related to the increasing trends of global climate change. Editor Jurgen Marxsen does a great job with the breadth of coverage, including chapters on viruses, bacteria, fungi, and protists alike, in a range of environments from marine, freshwater, to soil. Chapters address both the data that is known regarding alterations in biochemistry, biogeology, and community interactions due to climate change, but also highlight areas where data is particularly lacking, such as in sediments and inland waters. The first chapters also incorporate relevance to rising pathogenic risks due to climate change through alterations in abundance of cyanobacteria or Vibrio species, or expansion of freshwater parasite ranges. With multiple black-and-white and color figures typical of journal review articles in each chapter, this is an impressive short overview of a topic with likely broad student appeal.