siderophores are commonly referred to as cooperators; members that produce little to no siderophores are often referred to as cheaters. Research has shown when cooperators and cheaters are grown together, cooperators have a decrease in fitness while cheaters have an increase in fitness. It is observed that the magnitude of change in fitness increases with increasing iron-limitation. With an increase in fitness, the cheaters can outcompete the cooperators; this leads to an overall decrease in fitness of the group, due to lack of sufficient siderophore production. Ecology Siderophores become important in the ecological niche defined by low iron availability, iron being one of the critical growth limiting factors for virtually all aerobic microorganisms. There are four major ecological habitats: soil and surface water, marine water, plant tissue (pathogens) and animal tissue (pathogens). Soil and surface water The soil is a rich source of bacterial and fungal genera. Common Gram-positive species are those belonging to the Actinomycetales and species of the genera Bacillus, Arthrobacter and Nocardia. Many of these organisms produce and secrete ferrioxamines which lead to growth promotion of not only the producing organisms, but also other microbial populations that are able to utilize exogenous siderophores. Soil fungi include Aspergillus and Penicillium predominantly produce ferrichromes. This group of siderophores consist of cyclic hexapeptides and consequently are highly resistant to environmental degradation associated with the wide range of hydrolytic enzymes that are present in humic soil. Soils containing decaying plant material possess pH values as low as 3–4. Under such conditions organisms that produce hydroxamate siderophores have an advantage due to the extreme acid stability of these molecules. The microbial population of fresh water is similar to that of soil, indeed many bacteria are washed out from the soil. In addition, fresh-water lakes contain large populations of Pseudomonas, Azomonas, Aeromonos and Alcaligenes species. Marine water In contrast to most fresh-water sources, iron levels in surface sea-water are extremely low (1 nM to 1 μM in the upper 200 m) and much lower than those of V, Cr, Co, Ni, Cu and Zn. Virtually all this iron is in the iron(III) state and complexed to organic ligands. These low levels of iron limit the primary production of phytoplankton and have led to the Iron Hypothesis where it was proposed that an influx of iron would promote phytoplankton growth and thereby reduce atmospheric CO2. This hypothesis has been tested on more than 10