Aquatic Pollution and Coastal Management

Unit 7 : Microbial pollution

7.1.Microbes
Many living things are so small that they can only be seen through a microscope. These living things are called micro-organisms or microbes. There are three main types of microbe:

• Fungi
• Bacteria
• Viruses

Fungi
Mushrooms and toadstools are fungi, but these are made of lots of cells, so they are not microbes. Yeasts are single-celled fungi, so they are microbes. Fungi are usually the biggest type of microbe. If there is just one of them, we call it a fungus.

Bacteria
Bacteria are usually smaller than fungi. If there is just one of them, we call it a bacterium. Bacteria have many different shapes. Some have 'tails' (called flagella) that let them swim.

Viruses

Viruses are the smallest type of microbe. As a virus can only reproduce inside a cell, some people are not convinced that viruses are really living things.