Based on the proceedings of a symposium sponsored by the Ecology Group of the Society for General Microbiology, held in Cambridge in 1980. Includes bibliographies and index.; The sediment environment / S.J. Malcolm and S.O. Stanley -- Modelling the processes or organic matter degradation and nutrients recycling in sedimentary systems / G. Billen -- Nitrate dissimilation in marine and estuarine sediments / R.A. Herbert -- The cycling of sulphur in marine and freshwater sediments / D.B. Nedwell -- Activities of aerobic and anaerobic bacteria in lake sediments and their effect on the water column / J.G. Jones -- Microbial activity in organically enriched marine sediments / N.S. Battersby and C.M. Brown -- Interactions between bacteria and benthic invertebrates / J.C. Fry -- Early transformations of isoprenoid compounds in surface sedimentary environments / J.R. Maxwell and A.M.K. Wardroper.