"This book will address microbial ecosystem health, and microbial ecosystem function. This book examines the fact that the health of all living organisms depends upon the health of the ecosystem in which those organisms live. The health of an ecosystem depends, at its most basic level, upon the healthy coordination of activities within and between its subset microbial communities. Readers of the book will gain understanding into how microbiological communities coordinate their function, learn how the relative rates and effective integration of community microbial processes currently are measured, and acquire insight into comparing the characteristics observed for healthy versus unhealthy systems"-- Provided by publisher.