All life forms rely on bacterial processes for their survival. Bacterial diversity is greater than the diversity of any other group of organisms. Bacteria are responsible for diverse metabolic functions that affect soil and plant health. Soil is highly heterogeneous and complex microhabitat, which is reflected in the spatial distribution and enormous diversity of microorganisms and their metabolic versatility. The importance of soil microorganisms for sustenance of all other forms of life needs no emphasis. Industrial microbiology exploits the ecological adaptations that microorganisms have developed to communicate with and survive in their environments.

Main focus of this special issue explores the intersection of microbial diversity and industrial microbiology with ecological microbiology, which is the study of these adaptations. These topics unite industrial applications with ecological innovation, using bacterial transformation of chemical environments and their virtually limitless adaptive strategies to cultivate industrial applications. The special issue will become an international forum for researchers to summarize the most recent developments and ideas in the field, with a special emphasis given to the technical and observational results obtained within the last five years. The topics to be covered include, but not limited to:

• Microbial diversity and community ecology
• Microbial ecology and functional diversity of natural habitats
• Microbes: soil interaction and ecosystem impacts
• Microbial community genetics and evolutionary processes
• Microbial physiological, metabolic, and structural diversity
• Environmental microbiology
• Extremophiles and life in extreme and unusual little-explored habitats
• New technological developments in microbial ecology, interdisciplinary studies of fundamental problems are particularly welcome

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aess/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/ according to the following timetable: