Microbes are everywhere. There are more of them on a person's hand than there are people on the entire planet.
Microbes are in the air we breathe, the ground we walk on, the food we eat—they're even inside us. We could not digest food without them—animals could not, either. Without microbes, plants couldn't grow, garbage wouldn't decay and there would be a lot less oxygen to breathe (Edward, 2002).
Microorganisms - bacteria, archaea, fungi, algae, viruses and protists -- are often easy to overlook. For the most part (except fungal fruiting bodies seen as mushrooms) we can't see microbes. The effects of microbes we feel are usually associated with an illness. Most people know that bacteria and viruses can act as "germs" and cause disease. Because of this it seems perfectly acceptable to try to wipe all of the germs out of our environment by using antibacterial agents and antibiotics. However, our use of antibiotics and antibacterial agents is changing the microbes in our environment, making the germs tougher to beat and eliminating some beneficial microbes.
Beneficial functions of microbes:
Microbes are essential to our very existence. They are ubiquitous, found in common environments such as soil, water, and air as well as exotic locales as diverse as deep sea hydrothermal vents and soda lime lakes (Edward, 2002). In these natural environments microorganisms have very specific jobs. They are responsible for recycling nutrients in our soil and purifying our water. We also use microbes in constructed environments to serve our own functions.
Nutrient Recycling. When plants and animals take up nutrients, they are not available to other living organisms. When the plants and animals die, the nutrients remain in the carcass. If the dead material, or detritus, is not broken down by microbes, those nutrients will never.....
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