Lichtgedanken 03

S C HW E R P U N K T 10 Einführender Text Mikrobielles Leben Mikrokosmos, Mikrobielle Kommunikation etc Huge numbers of microbes are present in fresh water—in rivers and lakes, for example—but also in the salt water of seas and oceans. They are essential to the chemical processes in water bodies. Between minimalism and diversity They are specialists in survival and transformation, talented communicators and usually part of huge communities. Their flexibility, diversity and vast numbers are unsurpassed. Microorganisms represent a good two-thirds of all the biomass on Earth. How their communities function in the natural world, how they create and maintain conditions of dynamic equilibrium with host orga- nisms and with their environment, and how communication is achieved in the various microbi- omes—these are all topics that scientists in Jena are studying in a number of interdisciplinary research consortia. BY UTE SCHÖNFELDER S CF E AT U R E