Navigationspfad

Cultivated microorganisms like Lactobacillus or Acetobacter species or pure breeding yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) are inoculated for the treatment and processing of food and feedstuff as well as in the production of beverages. Further fields of use are plant protection, animal health and soil improvement. Microorganisms are also used in wide range of technological areas, like air purification, the cleaning of waste gases, the extraction of raw material, energy production, or for pharmacological applications. In numerous cases, the microorganisms employed for these purposes are offered by the industry as starter cultures.

Microorganisms directly used for Human Consumption

The fruiting body of many fungus species is edible and contributes directly to human consumption as food which is tasty, low in calories, rich in protein, mineral nutrients and roughage. Most of edible mushrooms belong to the class of Basidiomycetes. Wild mushrooms are directly picked in nature, which requires a high degree of knowledge about species and ecosystems. Besides, the breeding of edible mushrooms, e.g. cultivated mushroom, oyster fungus, king trumpet mushroom, shiitake, little cluster fungus and Judas's ear fungus, plays a part in food production. Microalgae like Spirulina or Chlorella are used as food supplement due to their high content of essential amino acids and minerals.

Microorganisms for Research Purposes

Certain microorganisms are harmful organisms and may cause considerable economic losses. They are responsible for crop damage brought about, for example, by rust fungi or mildew, or for epizootic diseases, like the swine fever or bluetongue disease pathogens. These pathogenic organisms are preserved in collections serving for the development of plant protection and conservation strategies or of animal drugs and vaccines.
Research on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (Bundesministerium fuer Ernaehrung, Landwirtschaft und Verbraucherschutz, BMELV) in its federal research institutes can take advantage of, partly extensive, collections of microorganisms that are important for both the agricultural economy and the food industry (over 10,000 collection samples). In addition to that, the German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures (Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen GmbH, DSMZ) keeps about 13,000 collection samples of bacteria, fungi and viruses, relevant mainly for medical and industrial applications but, partly, also for the fields of food and agriculture. It can be assumed that there are further large collections, both at numerous public institutions but chiefly also in private enterprise, of which, however, no overview has been gained so far.
Microorganisms with Functions relevant for Use in Agroecosystems
For microorganisms that are not directly used but which are present and vital in agroecosystems like soil, there is so far only scarce knowledge of the propagation of species and their functions in agroecosystems. Often it is only total metabolism performances, e.g. nitrogen fixation, that are considered as sum of various organisms' individual performance.

Most flowering plants depend on the pollination through insects, i.e. the carrying of the pollen from one plant's anthers to another plant's stigma. They also include many cultivated plants. Without pollination, they would yield either no fruits or a merely defective fruit setting. Consequently, a great number of invertebrate species play a vital part in the coming about of crop yields in agriculture and horticulture. The diversity of pollinators has thus to be maintained and supported, the more so as any pollinators cannot pollinate any blossom, but there are often highly specialized couples of one pollinating species and one or few plant species. One of the most important pollinating insects are the bees (Apiformes). In Germany there are, besides the honeybee, over 500 further bee species, whose flower-visiting is partly very specialized, but many of which are endangered. A lot of pollinating species can be found among butterflies (Lepidoptera) and flies (Diptera), too.

Beneficial animals

A benefit-focused view of a agroecosystem differentiates between useful and harmful organisms. Of course, this view does not apply with natural ecosystems and the biology of organisms. In agriculture, horticulture and forestry, the term "beneficial animals" chiefly describes such organisms that decimate pests, but also perform other useful functions in increasing or stabilizing yields. This term, in the narrower sense, is thus linked to biological plant protection, and comprises predatory and parasitoid invertebrates as well as pathogenic and antagonistic microorganisms that diminish plant-damaging organisms.
Beneficial animals decimating pests that affect useful plants can in particular be found among the following groups of invertebrate organisms: regarding predators, it is sometimes only the larval stages that are relevant in terms of beneficialness, the adult animals partly taking other food, like nectar and pollen. Examples of predatory beneficial species are: ladybirds (Coccinellidae), bugs (Heteroptera), predatory mites (Stigmaeidae), spiders (Arachnidae) or hoverflies (Syrphidae).

As for parasitoids, their larvae grow in a host, thereby killing it. Examples are wasps (Ichneumonoidea) or parasitic nematodes (Nematoda).
Beneficial animals also include pathogenic microorganisms, like fungi, bacteria or viruses, which infest pests and kill them. Examples are the granulose viruses or Bacillus thuringiensis.

Soil Organisms

Upshot