Natural microbial communities in soil and water are key players
in several processes controlling the quality of ecosystems and
regulating the fate of pollution released into the environment
and in this sense, they provide the Ecosystem Service termed
“Regulation” [45]. Microorganisms are involved in ecosystem selfpurification
processes since they can degrade contaminants by
metabolic and/or co-metabolic pathways. Biodegradation is considered
the most important process for eliminating the majority of
xenobiotics, including pharmaceuticals [28,43,45]. Recovery from
contamination is possible only if the toxicity of the molecules does
not inhibit microbial activity. However, knowledge on biodegradation
of drugs and their effects on ecological processes driven by
microorganisms is quite scarce, so far.