Aquatic Ecosystems and Microbial Biofilms: Significance, Dynamics, Prevention and Control

Aquatic Ecosystems and Microbial Biofilms: Significance, Dynamics, Prevention and Control provides a systematic introduction and review of state-of-the-art information on microbial biofilms in aquatic ecosystems and their control. The book is designed and developed to understand the microbial biofilms in aquatic ecosystems, their role, and the control strategies. The contents of the book are well discussed to get state-of-art knowledge on various topics such as the role of biofilms in marine ecosystems, microbial biofilms, and drinking water systems, biofilms in biofouling and biocorrosion, beneficial aspects of biofilms such as biogeochemical cycling, wastewater treatment, and in biodeterioration of organic materials. This book also provides comprehensive knowledge and in-depth scientific information on the role of biofilms and their contribution to antibiotic resistance, and also advanced technologies to understand biofilms such as metagenomics.

The book offers comprehensive coverage of the most essential topics, including:

• Microbial biofilms in aquatic ecosystems.
• New horizons to understand the role of biofilms in biofouling and corrosion and their control measures.
• Beneficial role of aquatic biofilms such as in biogeochemical cycling, wastewater treatment, and biodeterioration of organic materials.

• Various strategies to collaborate interdisciplinary schemes worldwide to design and develop new methods for cleaner drinking water, and information on advanced techniques such as metagenomics to understand the diversity and functional role of aquatic biofilms.

This book serves as a reference book for scientific investigators who would like to study biofilms in aquatic ecosystems, as well as researchers developing methodology in this field to study biofilm formation in aquatic ecosystems, their advantages and disadvantages, and control strategies.

Dr. Busi Siddhardha is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology, Pondicherry University, Puducherry, India. He received his Ph.D. from CSIR-IICT, Hyderabad, India. Dr. Siddhardha has more than 15 years of research experience and his research is majorly focussed on Microbial pathogenesis, Virulence, Microbial biofilms, natural compound based antimicrobial drug discovery. His research area also expands to nanobiotechnology, drug delivery and antimicrobial photodynamic therapy. Dr. Siddhardha’s research group is currently working extensively on phytochemicals having anti-quorum sensing and anti-biofilm potential and their synergistic/adjuvant properties in combination with antibiotics. He completed two research projects on anti-quorum sensing and anti-biofilm activities of natural products funded by Government of India. Dr. Siddhardha is serving as editorial member of several journals and he is member of many national and international scientific societies. He has published more than 80 research articles in the peer-reviewed international journal and authored or co-authored numerous book chapters. He also edited five books from his areas of expertise.

Ram Prasad, Ph.D. is Associate Professor, Department of Botany, Mahatma Gandhi Central University, Motihari, Bihar, India. His research interest includes Applied & Environmental Microbiology, Plant-Microbe interactions, sustainable agriculture and Nanobiotechnology. Dr. Prasad has more than three hundred publications to his credit, including research papers, review articles & book chapters and seven patents issued or pending, and edited or authored more than fifty books. He has guided one postdoc, two M. Phil, nine Ph.D. and several master dissertation students. Dr. Prasad has fourteen years of teaching/research experience and has been awarded the Sir CV Raman Scientist Award, Young Scientist Award & Prof. J.S. Datta Munshi Gold Medal by the International Society for Ecological Communications; Fellow of Agricultural Technology Development Society (FATDS); Fellow of Biotechnology Research society of India (FBRS); Fellow of the Society for Applied Biotechnology (FSAB); the American Cancer Society UICC International Fellowship for Beginning Investigators, USA; Outstanding Scientist Award in the field of Microbiology; BRICPL Science Investigator Award, Research Excellence Award etc. He has been serving as editorial board members: Nanotechnology Reviews; BMC Microbiology; BMC Biotechnology; Current Microbiology; Archives of Microbiology; Annals of Microbiology; IET Nanobiotechnology; Green Processing and Synthesis; Discoverer Nano, SN Applied Sciences; Journal of Agriculture and Food Research, Agriculture, etc. including Series editor of Nanotechnology in the Life Sciences, Springer Nature, USA. Previously, Dr. Prasad served as Assistant Professor at Amity University Uttar Pradesh, India; Visiting Assistant Professor, Whiting School of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, United States and Research Associate Professor at School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.