Microbial Life in Extreme Environments: Linking Geological and Microbiological Processes

The last decade has seen extraordinary growth of Geomicrobiology, the interdisciplinary field between Geology and Microbiology. Microorganisms have been studied in numerous extreme environments on Earth, ranging from crystalline rocks from the deep subsurface, hypersaline lakes, to dry deserts and deep-ocean hydrothermal vent systems. This chapter reviews several active research frontiers in Geomicrobiology that demonstrate the importance of linking geological and microbiological processes in such studies: deep continental subsurface microbiology, microbial ecology in saline lakes, microbial formation of dolomite, geomicrobiology in dry deserts, fossil DNA and its use in paleoenvironmental reconstruction, and microbial weathering of oceanic crust. The author has no intention to provide a comprehensive review of all areas of Geomicrobiology, as this daunting task deserves a dedicated book on its own.