Revolutionizing Water Quality Through Microbial Interactions in Aquatic Ecosystems for Pollution Abatement

Microorganisms, which are present ubiquitously in the earth, play a very important role in maintaining any kind of an ecosystem and aquatic ecosystems are no exception from it. These ecosystems are often prone to pollution and contamination by toxic and heavy metals, excess of nutrients (eutrophication), pathogens, foreign species, etc. which needs to be abated to keep it healthy. Also, to maintain the balance of an ecosystem, the nutrients must be recirculated and support for survival of the living organisms is required. These tasks are done by the microbial interactions with the pollutants and other organisms by taking different forms like biofilms and aggregates by employing various mechanisms like bioremediation (plant–microbe interactions), co-metabolism, etc. The microbes also decay the organic compounds which are generally applied to the fields thereby regulating the organic carbon, carbon dioxide and oxygen flow in the system. The microbes are one of the sole players responsible for fixing and regenerating the key organic elements like carbon, nitrogen, sulphur and phosphorous and mobilising the cofactors and vitamins necessary for metabolism, growth, and development of biological units. They are crucial for sustaining the food chains and food webs and thus regulate the energy and material fluxes. Functionally, these microbes support the living part of aquatic ecosystem and keep up the water quality. As a result of the associated interactions, they receive substances and services essential for their own survival and development which will be reviewed further in this chapter.