Based on the proceedings of a symposium sponsored by the Ecology Gro up of the Society for General Microbiology, held in Cambridge in 1980.

Includes bibliographies and index.

The sediment environment / S.J. Malcolm and S.O. Stanley -- Modellin g the processes or organic matter degradation and nutrients recycling i n sedimentary systems / G. Billen -- Nitrate dissimilation in marine an d estuarine sediments / R.A. Herbert -- The cycling of sulphur in marin e and freshwater sediments / D.B. Nedwell -- Activities of aerobic and anaerobic bacteria in lake sediments and their effect on the water colu mn / J.G. Jones -- Microbial activity in organically enriched marine se diments / N.S. Battersby and C.M. Brown -- Interactions between bacteri a and benthic invertebrates / J.C. Fry -- Early transformations of isop renoid compounds in surface sedimentary environments / J.R. Maxwell and A.M.K. Wardroper.