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Science 14 February 2003:
Vol. 299. no. 5609, pp. 1027 - 1029
DOI: 10.1126/science.1072076
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Perspectives

GEOSCIENCE:
Microbial Geoengineers

Lesley A. Warren and Mary E. Kauffman

Microbes play a key role in many aqueous geochemical processes, influencing all major elemental cycles. However, as Warren and Kauffman explain in their Perspective, the metabolism of many microbial strains and hence their influence on geochemical processes remain unknown. Microbial communities may leave specific "fingerprints" on geochemical processes. Integrated, geochemical and functional genetic studies will identify these microbial fingerprints by comparing how microbes engineer geochemical processes in different systems.

L. A. Warren is in the School of Geography and Geology, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, L8S 4K1 Canada. E-mail: warrenl{at}mcmaster.ca M. E. Kauffman is at Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL), Idaho Falls, ID 83415, USA. E-mail: kaufme{at}inel.gov

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)