Environmental Microbiology provides a high profile vehicle for publication of the most innovative, original and rigorous research in the field. The scope of the Journal encompasses the diversity of current research on microbial processes in the environment, microbial communities, interactions and evolution and includes, but is not limited to, the following: the structure, activities and communal behaviour of microbial communities microbial community genetics and evolutionary processes microbial symbioses, microbial interactions and interactions with plants, animals and abiotic factors microbes in the tree of life, microbial diversification and evolution population biology and clonal structure microbial metabolic and structural diversity microbial physiology, growth and survival microbes and surfaces, adhesion and biofouling responses to environmental signals and stress factors modelling and theory development pollution microbiology extremophiles and life in extreme and unusual little-explored habitats element cycles and biogeochemical processes, primary and secondary production microbes in a changing world, microbially-influenced global changes evolution and diversity of archaeal and bacterial viruses new technological developments in microbial ecology and evolution, in particular for the study of activities of microbial communities, non-culturable microorganisms and emerging pathogens