Microbial Diversity in Changing Ecosystems: From Environmental Adaptation Mechanisms to Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Microorganisms represent the unseen majority of Earth's biodiversity, serving as fundamental drivers of ecosystem processes and resilience. As our planet undergoes rapid environmental transformations, understanding microbial responses to these changes has never been more critical.

This Special Issue bridges two complementary perspectives: the vital conservation of microbial diversity through culture collections and the ecological mechanisms by which microbes adapt to and mitigate environmental change.

We invite contributions that explore the following topics:

1. Microbial Conservation Strategies

• Innovative approaches to microbial isolation, cultivation, and preservation;
• The role of culture collections in safeguarding threatened microbial diversity;
• Integration of ex situ conservation with in situ ecosystem protection.

Ecosystem Responses to Change

• Microbial adaptation mechanisms under environmental stress;
• Biodiversity–ecosystem function relationships across habitats;
• Microbial indicators of environmental change and ecosystem health.

Emerging Tools and Approaches

• Advanced methodologies for studying microbial communities;
• Linking culture-dependent and culture-independent techniques;
• Novel applications of microbial biodiversity research.

This collection will provide a unique synthesis of microbial conservation science and ecological research, highlighting the following:

• How preserved microbial diversity can inform ecosystem restoration;
• The importance of microbial communities as components of global biodiversity;
• Cutting-edge approaches to study and protect these vital organisms.

We welcome research articles, reviews, and methodological papers that advance our understanding of microbial diversity in an era of environmental change.

Dr. Ipek Kurtboke
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Diversity is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2100 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.