Editing Microbial ecology (section)

== Influential Scientists ==
[[File:Louis Pasteur.jpg|thumb|[[Louis Pasteur]] ]]
[[Martinus Beijerinck]] invented the [[enrichment culture]], a fundamental method of studying [[microbe]]s from the environment. [[Sergei Winogradsky]] was one of the first researchers to attempt to understand [[microorganisms]] outside of the medical context—making him among the first students of microbial ecology and environmental microbiology—discovering [[chemosynthesis]] and developing the [[Winogradsky column]] in the process.<ref name="brock" />{{rp|644}}

[[Louis Pasteur]] was a French chemist who derived key microbial principles that we use today: microbial fermentation, pasteurization, germ theory, and vaccines.<ref name=":12">{{Cite journal |last=Mostowy |first=Serge |date=2022-12-01 |title=Louis Pasteur continues to shape the future of microbiology |url=https://journals.biologists.com/dmm/article/15/12/dmm050011/285918/Louis-Pasteur-continues-to-shape-the-future-of |journal=Disease Models & Mechanisms |language=en |volume=15 |issue=12 |doi=10.1242/dmm.050011 |issn=1754-8403 |pmc=10655809 |pmid=36504391}}</ref> These principles have served as a foundation for scientists in viewing the relationship between microbes and their environment.<ref name=":12" /> For example, Pasteur disproved the theory of spontaneous generation, the belief of life arising from nonliving materials.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-05-06 |title=1.1C: Pasteur and Spontaneous Generation |url=https://bio.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Microbiology/Microbiology_(Boundless)/01:_Introduction_to_Microbiology/1.01:_Introduction_to_Microbiology/1.1C:_Pasteur_and_Spontaneous_Generation |access-date=2025-04-02 |website=Biology LibreTexts |language=en}}</ref> Pasteur stated that life can only come from life and not nonliving materials.<ref name=":0" /> This led to the idea that microorganisms were responsible for the microbial growth in any environment.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=2022-07-22 |title=1.6.2: Pasteur and Spontaneous Generation |url=https://bio.libretexts.org/Courses/Prince_Georges_Community_College/PGCC_Microbiology/01:_Introduction_to_Microbiology/1.06:_History_of_Microbiology/1.6.02:_Pasteur_and_Spontaneous_Generation |access-date=2025-04-02 |website=Biology LibreTexts |language=en}}</ref>

[[Robert Koch]] was a physician-scientist who implemented [[Oil immersion|oil-immersion lens]] and a [[Condenser (optics)|condenser]] while using microscopes, to increase the imagery of viewing bacteria.<ref name=":03">{{Cite journal |last=Blevins |first=Steve M. |last2=Bronze |first2=Michael S. |date=2010-09-01 |title=Robert Koch and the ‘golden age’ of bacteriology |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1201971210023143 |journal=International Journal of Infectious Diseases |volume=14 |issue=9 |pages=e744–e751 |doi=10.1016/j.ijid.2009.12.003 |issn=1201-9712|doi-access=free }}</ref> This led Koch to be the first publisher of bacteria photographs. As a result, Koch was able to study wound infections in animals at the microscopic level.<ref name=":03" /> He was able to distinguish distinct bacteria species, which led him to believe that the best way to study a certain disease is to focus on a specific pathogen.<ref name=":03" /> In 1879, Koch started to develop "pure" cultures to grow bacteria colonies.<ref name=":03" /> These advancements led Koch to solve the [[Cholera]] endemic in India during the year 1883.<ref name=":03" /> Koch's laboratory techniques and materials led him to conclude that the use of unfiltered water was causing the Cholera endemic, since it contained bacteria causing intestinal harm in humans.<ref name=":03" />

[[Lorenz Hiltner]] is known as one of the pioneers in "microbial ecology."<ref name=":4" /> His research focused on how microbials in the [[rhizosphere]] provided nutrients to plants. Hiltner stated that the quality of plant products was a result of the plant's roots microflora.<ref name=":4" /> One of Hiltner contributions to the study of plant nutrition and soil bacteriology was creating antimicrobial seeds covered with mercury chloride.<ref name=":4" /> The sole purpose of creating the antimicrobial seeds were to protect the seeds from the harmful effects of [[Pathogenic fungus|pathogenic fungi]]. In addition, he recognized the known bacteria that were responsible for the [[nitrogen cycle]]: [[denitrification]], [[nitrification]], and [[nitrogen fixation]].<ref name=":4" />  

[[Dionicia Gamboa]] is a prime example of how scientists are still trying to understand the relationship between microorganisms and nature.<ref name=":04">{{Cite journal |last=Céline |first=Valadeau |last2=Adriana |first2=Pabon |last3=Eric |first3=Deharo |last4=Joaquina |first4=Albán–Castillo |last5=Yannick |first5=Estevez |last6=Augusto |first6=Lores Fransis |last7=Rosario |first7=Rojas |last8=Dionicia |first8=Gamboa |last9=Michel |first9=Sauvain |last10=Denis |first10=Castillo |last11=Geneviève |first11=Bourdy |title=Medicinal plants from the Yanesha (Peru): Evaluation of the leishmanicidal and antimalarial activity of selected extracts |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0378874109001895 |journal=Journal of Ethnopharmacology |language=en |volume=123 |issue=3 |pages=413–422 |doi=10.1016/j.jep.2009.03.041 |via=Elsevier Science Direct|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Gamboa is a Peruvian biologist who has dedicated her career towards treating [[malaria]] and [[leishmaniasis]] microorganisms.<ref name=":04" /> In 2009, Gamboa and her colleagues published a paper on treating different strains of malaria and leishmaniasis microorganisms, using plant extracts from the amazon.<ref name=":04" /> To add on, Gamboa has studied different ways to accurately detect [[malaria]] and [[leishmaniasis]] microorganisms in humans, using [[Polymerase chain reaction|PCR]] and [[serology]].<ref name=":14">{{Cite journal |last=Rosas-Aguirre |first=Angel |last2=Gamboa |first2=Dionicia |last3=Manrique |first3=Paulo |last4=Conn |first4=Jan E. |last5=Moreno |first5=Marta |last6=Lescano |first6=Andres G. |last7=Sanchez |first7=Juan F. |last8=Rodriguez |first8=Hugo |last9=Silva |first9=Hermann |last10=Llanos-Cuentas |first10=Alejandro |last11=Vinetz |first11=Joseph M. |date=2016-12-28 |title=Epidemiology of Plasmodium vivax Malaria in Peru |url=https://www.ajtmh.org:443/view/journals/tpmd/95/6_Suppl/article-p133.xml |journal=The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene |language=EN |volume=95 |issue=6_Suppl |pages=133–144 |doi=10.4269/ajtmh.16-0268 |issn=0002-9637 |pmc=5201219 |pmid=27799639}}</ref> Her studies have helped understand the [[epidemiology]] of these microorganisms, to reduce the interaction with them in nature and their harmful effects.<ref name=":14" />