International Society for Microbial Ecology

The International Society for Microbial Ecology (ISME) is the principal scientific society for the burgeoning field of microbial ecology and its related disciplines. ISME is a non-profit association and is owner of the International Symposia on Microbial Ecology and also owner of The ISME Journal which is published by Springer Nature (impact factor 2016 9.6 - Reuters Thomson). The ISME Office is based at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology () in Wageningen, The Netherlands.

ISME fosters the exchange of scientific information by organizing international symposia as well as specific workshops, sponsoring publications, and promoting education and research. ISME provides services to the scientific as well as the wider community. The society enjoys close collaborations with other key scientific organizations, and has established effective scientific interactions in all geographical regions through a network of scientific leaders who serve as ISME National Ambassadors. Anyone with an interest in Microbial Ecology can become a member of ISME.

The important role of microorganisms in natural environments was recognized by leading microbiologists in the late nineteenth century, in particular M. Beijerinck and S. Winogradsky. In his insightful lecture on the role of microbes in general circulation of life (1897) 1), Winogradsky stressed the cardinal role of microorganisms in the circulation of elements on the earth. Discussing the diversity of microorganisms in an environment and microbe-microbe interactions among the populations, he pointed out the specialized functions of various microorganisms in the processes of matter circulation, and the succession of different functional groups in the community in which they work. However, at the era of Winogradsky and Beiuerinck, the only means of discriminating and identifying microorganisms in-situ was the microscopic observation, and the quantitative analysis of the role played by each microorganism in the community was, in most cases, not attained.

In the 20th century, particularly after the Second World War, we have seen extensive developments in the method of isolation, counting and differentiation of microorganisms in environments. The new methodology in taxonomy, like the numerical taxonomy and chemotaxonomy, was soon applied for the identification of environmental isolates. Also, differential staining methods and fluorescent antibody techniques were introduced for in-situ observation of microorganisms. Various new techniques, ranging from the determination of growth and activity of microorganisms in the environments to their isolation and characterization, were assembled in “Modern Methods in the Study of Microbial Ecology” edited by Thomas Rosswall in 1973). The book was based on the meeting held at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, in 1972, and the symposium, preceded the formal ISME, is now known as ISME-0 since R. Guerrero presented at the ISME-63).

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