科研之友
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摘要
Chemotrophic life depends on the regular supply of new material to maintain a thermodynamic non-equilibrium situation. A thermodynamic non-equilibrium situation is characterized by significant driving forces to drive phase and/or electron transfer in redox reactions. Microorganisms play an important role as catalysts of thermodynamically feasible chemical redox reactions, and are capable of utilizing the energy generated for microbial growth. An improved insight in the functioning of ecosystems and the microbial life encountered can be established by analyzing the thermodynamic state of the ecosystem. Still, conducting an extensive thermodynamic state analysis based on measured information of an ecosystem is generally considered a rather complicated and laborious task. In this paper, we describe a generalized and step-wise method for conducting an extensive thermodynamic state analysis of an environmental ecosystem. The method is based on the identification of the reactants in the system and the derivation of the stoichiometry of the catabolic and anabolic reaction. In a subsequent step, the thermodynamic system properties are calculated, and different methods to establish a full description of microbial metabolism are obtained. Several examples are presented to clarify the method proposed. We hope this relatively straightforward method encourages researchers of microbial ecosystems to include thermodynamic state analysis as an integral part of their research. [Supplemental materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology for the following free supplemental resource: an elaboration in MS Excel of examples in the text regarding the fully generalized method described in this paper.].
- 出版日期2010
