EMI Lecture 2014: Professor Jim Prosser

Unimaginable, unprecedented, microbial diversity: whence, so what, and can we learn from nitrifiers?

Microorganisms perform and control the fundamental processes required for the global cycling of nutrients and sustainability of ecosystems. However, we are relatively ignorant of the ways in which they grow and survive in natural environments and of the factors controlling microbial species diversity and community structure. Research within my group utilises a range of molecular and traditional techniques applied to laboratory, microcosm, field systems to investigate and determine these controlling factors.