Early diagnosis of microbial toxins and inappropriate microbes in any environment is important to guarantee the safety of humans and animals. Microbiological tools also help in assessment of contamination sources. Furthermore, microbes play a crucial role in cycling of elements. Knowledge on interactions in microbial communities is essential when evaluating how changes in climate and other natural factors or human management affect the ecosystems in certain environment. Alimetrics provides techniques for the detection of microbe-linked compounds from natural habitats and also methods to analyse the interactions in microbial communities affecting cycling of elements and other environmentally important processes. Examples of cases falling within our range of expertise are listed below.

Air and water pollution

• Mould exposure analysis with DNA-based methods increases the speed, scope and accuracy of identification compared with conventional culturing techniques
• Gastrointestinal tract microbial communities harbour clusters, which allow much more accurate and sensitive detection of faecal contamination than cultivation of enterobacteria

Cycling of elements

• In a warmer and drier climate, the enormous carbon stocks in high-latitude terrestrial ecosystems are subject to microbial degradation, releasing carbon dioxide and exacerbating the climate change
• Plants growing under higher carbon dioxide concentration are deficient in nitrogen and produce more leaves and less crop. Symbiont microbes with nitrogen-fixing capability provide an efficient solution to the problem