Impact of Microbial Diversity on the Environment

Microbial diversity is an essential aspect of any ecosystem on earth. Microorganisms are the most common and diversified population in the soil. A microbe is a microscopic organism that can be studied in a single-cell or colony. On the other hand, microbes have a positive or negative effect on their surroundings. Microbial diversity plays an essential role in bioremediation, which is the method of detoxifying or neutralizing radioactive waste into less harmful or non-toxic compounds by secreting various bacterial and fungal enzymes. In this chapter, we focus on (i) the impact of microbial diversity on detoxifying pollutants (bioremediation), (ii) microbial role in biofuel production, (iii) microbial role in ore leaching (bioleaching), (iv) microbial role in controlling biogeochemical cycles (v) microbial role in soil quality and agriculture improvement (vi)