Whereas the notion of extreme environment has received much attention from microbiologists, this generalization does not systematically include extreme soils. There may be at least two reasons for this. First, any soil may be considered as extreme for the colonizing microbes constantly facing starvation, desiccation, predation, and other attacks. In this sense, the notion of “extreme soil” would appear pleonastic. A second reason for the uncommon use of the term “extreme soil” might be the opinion that there is little to be gained from it, inasmuch as every soil has its particularities and, in its very nature, is refractory to human efforts at unification and simplification. In this sense, any grouping of soils from, say, the Antarctic or hot deserts into a common category designated as “extreme” would appear futile, if not detrimental to a precise understanding of soils and their microbial populations. However, one might take the stance that, although it certainly serves to be aware of these difficulties, there is still much to be learned from running into them. Hence, it is hoped that the present book will be a demonstration of the usefulness of the extreme soil concept to microbiologists.
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Dion, P. (2008). The Microbiological Promises of Extreme Soils. In: Dion, P., Nautiyal, C.S. (eds) Microbiology of Extreme Soils. Soil Biology, vol 13. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-74231-9_1
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