life Review Housekeeping in the Hydrosphere: Microbial Cooking, Cleaning, and Control under Stress Bopaiah Biddanda 1,* , Deborah Dila 2 , Anthony Weinke 1 , Jasmine Mancuso 1 , Manuel Villar-Argaiz 3 , Juan Manuel Medina-Sánchez 3 , Juan Manuel González-Olalla 4 and Presentación Carrillo 4 1 Annis Water Resources Institute, Grand Valley State University, Muskegon, MI 49441, USA;
[email protected] (A.W.);
[email protected] (J.M.) 2 School of Freshwater Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI 53204, USA;
[email protected] 3 Departamento de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain;
[email protected] (M.V.-A.);
[email protected] (J.M.M.-S.) 4 Instituto Universitario de Investigación del Agua, Universidad de Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain;
[email protected] (J.M.G.-O.);
[email protected] (P.C.) * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +1-616-331-3978 Abstract: Who’s cooking, who’s cleaning, and who’s got the remote control within the waters blan- keting Earth? Anatomically tiny, numerically dominant microbes are the crucial “homemakers” of the watery household. Phytoplankton’s culinary abilities enable them to create food by absorbing sunlight to fix carbon and release oxygen, making microbial autotrophs top-chefs in the aquatic kitchen. However, they are not the only bioengineers that balance this complex household. Ubiqui- tous heterotrophic microbes including prokaryotic bacteria and archaea (both “bacteria” henceforth), Citation: Biddanda, B.; Dila, D.; eukaryotic protists, and viruses, recycle organic matter and make inorganic nutrients available to Weinke, A.; Mancuso, J.; Villar-Argaiz, primary producers. Grazing protists compete with viruses for bacterial biomass, whereas mixotrophic M.; Medina-Sánchez, J.M.; protists produce new organic matter as well as consume microbial biomass.