Dietrich Werner – författare

Sustainability has a major part to play in the global challenge of continued development of regions, countries, and continents all around the World and biological nitrogen fixation has a key role in this process. This volume begins with chapters specifically addressing crops of major global importance, such as soybeans, rice, and sugar cane. It continues with a second important focus, agroforestry, and describes the use and promise of both legume trees with their rhizobial symbionts and other nitrogen-fixing trees with their actinorhizal colonization. An over-arching theme of all chapters is the interaction of the plants and trees with microbes and this theme allows other aspects of soil microbiology, such as interactions with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and the impact of soil-stress factors on biological nitrogen fixation, to be addressed. Furthermore, a link to basic science occurs through the inclusion of chapters describing the biogeochemically important nitrogen cycle and its key relationships among nitrogen fixation, nitrification, and denitrification. The volume then provides an up-to-date view of the production of microbial inocula, especially those for legume crops.

Most plants rely on the co-existence with microorganisms: both groups benefit from these symbioses. It has been shown that a large number of specific genes in plants and microorganisms are only activated during these interactions. Of course, various microbes also act as pathogens.

Interactions between plants and microorganisms are often located on plant surfaces, such as leaf cuticles, seeds and mainly on the roots. The communication between plants and microbes is the main topic treated in "Plant Surface Microbiology", such as the signaling within a symbiosis, the molecular differences between symbiotic and pathogenic microorganisms, the role of microorganisms in the development of plants or in plant protection against deleterious agents. Further contributions are devoted to: the analysis of bacterial communities in the rhizosphere; microbial population genetics; aspects of mycorrhizal symbiosis; functional genomic approaches and the use of microorganisms as bio-indicator of soil disturbance.

Migration is a global and ubiquitous phenomenon. A large percentage of our cultivated land in industrialized as well as in developing countries are covered with migrated or introduced plants. But also in natural habitats and communities, migration of animals, plants and microorganisms plays a key role in the functioning or threat to the present ecosystems.

The special feature of this book is that all forms of migration - be it plant, microbial, animal or human - and their mutual impact are covered in detail. It is estimated that during the next twenty years more than one billion people will migrate from rural areas to urban districts worldwide, forced by deteriorating biological resources and with enormous consequences on the functioning of both ecosystems and such central economic areas such as trade, transport and tourism.

The contributions in this book are the result of an innovative International Conference and OECD Workshop aimed at triggering off the interdisciplinary dialogue between natural scientists and socioeconomists.