Take a look at the recent news feature on microbial ecology in Nature by Nick Lane (link). He uses a brief discussion of the anammox reaction as a launching point for a review of basic microbial biochemistry and a higher-level investigation of the meaning of microbial processes for studying ecosystem function. Diversity is important because of the diversity of energy releasing – redox – reactions that take place. However, diversity happens. Communities of microorganisms in ecosystems seem to be assembled to get as much energy out of the environment as possible. Thus studying the diversity of processes is interesting, but understanding how organisms function necessitates studying the behavior and efficiencies of communities, not individuals. Reducing systems to understand them has limited insofar as it decouples organisms that function in a complimentary way. What do the ideas presented here mean for understanding nitrogen and carbon cycling agricultural ecosystems?