Microbial genetics and systematics

Microbes are by far the most numerous organisms on earth, inhabiting every available niche. Bacteria alone number between 10²⁹ and 10³⁰ cells (Kallmeyer et al. 2012). Microbes facilitate nutrient turnover in all ecosystems, including playing an essential role in degradation of carrion. Which microbes are involved, whether they originate from the soil or the host, and what sorts of succession processes occur in microbial communities during the transition from death through decomposition are all active topics of research. Other chapters in this book address various aspects of these processes, including general ecological interaction of microbial communities (Chapter 3) and microbiome studies of carrion decomposition (Chapter 19). Here, we discuss the problems and considerations inherent in investigating microbial communities.