Some Problems Posed by Natural Environments for Monitoring Microorganisms -- Sampling Sediment and Soil -- Sampling Water Bodies -- Dielectrophoresis -- Flow Cytometry and Cell Sorting -- Magnetic Particle-Based Separation Techniques for Monitoring Bacteria from Natural Environments -- DNA Extraction from Natural Environments -- Automated Sequencing of DNA Retrieved from Environmental Samples -- Analysis of DNA Sequences -- Fluorescent Polymerase Chain Reaction/Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism Monitoring of Genes Amplified Directly from Bacterial Communities in Soils and Sediments -- Recovery and Analysis of Ribosomal RNA Sequences from the Environment -- Application of Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis to Microbial Ecology -- Reporter Gene Expression for Monitoring Microorganisms in the Environment -- Characterizing Microorganisms in the Environment by Fatty Acid Analysis -- Fluorescent In Situ Hybridization and the Analysis of the Single Cell -- Specific Detection, Viability Assessment, and Macromolecular Staining of Bacteria for Flow Cytometry -- Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy of Environmental Samples -- Monitoring Microbial Activities Using Membrane Inlet Mass Spectrometry -- Experimental Biofilms and Their Applications in the Study of Environmental Processes -- Establishment of Experimental Biofilms Using the Modified Robbins Device and Flow Cells.

In Environmental Monitoring of Bacteria, Clive Edwards and his distinguished panel of researchers bring together a collection of detailed molecular methods for the environmental monitoring of bacterial populations. These state-of-the-art methods include techniques for the recovery of cells, for the analysis of whole cells, and for the molecular study of target species and heterogeneous populations. Many of the methods enable bacteria to be monitored in their natural environments without culturing, and specifically address the difficult problem that only a small proportion of bacteria in any ecosystem can be cultured by traditional methods. In addition to providing many eminently reproducible methods, the distinguished contributors review the problems of monitoring bacteria in natural environments and discuss the principles by which the methods work. Taking full advantage of the exciting research in recent years that has challenged some long-held principles of traditional microbiology, Environmental Monitoring of Bacteria gives timely and practical access to powerfultechniques that allow the study of bacterial ecology as communities, as single cells, or at the molecular level.