Slightly OT: scientific journal articles on nitrifying bacteria

Crossposting to get maximum answers.

I'm requesting some assistance with an assignment for my university microbiology class. I have to find 7 articles from a scientific journal published within the last 5 years on some topic in microbiology, and write a bibliography. I don't actually have to write a paper because this is a whole semester's worth of material crammed into a 5-week summer course, just write a bibliography as if I was going to write a paper. This assignment is due 4 August, so the more timely the assistance, the better.

Anyway, I thought I might be able to dig up some information on the nitrogen cycle and nitrifying bacteria in an aquarium setting. Any helpful pointers to such articles would be helpful. My Prof. did stress these articles had to be in bona fide scientific journals, not secondary sources like books, general magazines, or advertising propaganda. I'm going to run search engines both in the University library and on the web, but I thought someone out there, just maybe, might have some pointers to sites with these articles.

Thanks, Christina Thompson

OK, now I'm getting really OT, but I thought I'd share my experience. Today in Microbiology lab, we looked at pond water (actually the Prof. said he got it from and irrigation ditch) under the microscope. It was WAY COOL!!! BG Algae, other bacteria, spirogyra, protozoa, green algae, some microscopic inverts, and lots of other really interesting stuff I don't remember off the top of my head. None of it would I consider desirable in my aquarium, but it was really cool to look at.

newsgroups trimmed.

Why not? Most of that stuff would probably make your tank a healthier tank. Much of that stuff leaves off of decaying matter which would make your tank cleaner. The larger invertebrates would make a nice snack for your fish.

Look at a modern reef tank. The guys are going out of their way to jam their tanks full of 'micro fauna,' worms, isopods, copepods, rotifers, phytoplankton, zooplankton, etc. All to great sucess. Freshwater tanks are sterile compared to a modern reef tank.

This is one of the reasons I am switching to marine tanks. It is much easier to setup a complete marine ecosystem that managers itself, then it is to setup and maintain a freshwater tank.

See if you can find anything by Diana Walstad