Conceptual Breakthroughs: Microbial Ecology and Evolution continues the innovative Conceptual Breakthroughs series by providing a comprehensive outline of major breakthroughs for this young and emerging scientific field. The book's chapters cover important theoretical, technical and natural history discoveries that have led to conceptual breakthroughs. This resource offers a concise and accessible analysis of microbiology viewed through an ecological and evolutionary lens. By highlighting and interpreting key publications over the past 50 years, the book provides an important resource for students and researchers as they navigate this fast-moving research area.

The book's authors draw upon literature from diverse ecosystems (such as oceans, soil and humans) and fields of study (microbiology, ecology, evolutionary biology, medical microbiology, molecular biology).

• Reviews the history of the field and highlights intellectual challenges, debates and breakthroughs
• Demonstrates how technical advances in microbial and molecular tools have led to conceptual breakthroughs
• Provides a time-line of key natural history discoveries that have influenced the field’s direction