Microbe Roles, Part 1

http://sciencewithsusanna.com has diagrams, notes, and practice questions. Microbes are necessary for decomposition of organisms (and the return of their nutrients to the soil), the conversion of substances such as nitrogen into usable forms for plants (the nitrogen cycle), producing oxygen (phytoplankton), and covering our body membranes with normal flora (the microbiome) in order to inhibit pathogens. This is Part 1 of 2. Part 2 covers food production by microbes (yogurts, cheeses, alcohols, breads, etc.), how microbes produce antibiotics that we can use to treat true pathogens, and I wrap up Part 2 with a short description of how we culture microbes in lab to study their properties.