During recent years there has been increasing interest in the value of a number of chemical and physical-chemical analytical methods for the detection and characterization of microorganisms. Furthermore, such methods are currently used in studies on microbial metabolic processes, on the role of microorganisms in the turnover of inorganic and organic compounds, and on the impact on environmental changes by microbial activity. Moreover, the introduction of some of these methods not only shortens the analytical time period compared to -'traditional" techniques, but also improves the analytical...