Abstract:Studies of microbial ecology are receiving increasing attention in the world and are developing very quickly. Nevertheless, due to the limitations of research techniques and special characteristics of microbes, most studies are only at the exploratory stage while the relative methods are also in development. In recent years, considerations of spatial factors have shown a significant trend and many researchers have focused on this area. Many studies have begun to consider the spatial influence of the distribution of microbial communities and significant results had been achieved in this area. Studies on spatial patterns of microbial community can give us a better understanding of ecological processes. However, due to subject barriers and the minuteness of microbes, at present spatial concepts are not receiving adequate attentions in China. This paper focuses on a brief review of the current situation and progress of spatial analysis, and its potential application in microbial ecology. We introduced descriptions of spatial autocorrelation in microbial ecology studies, including Moran′ I and Geary′s c, Mantel test and the use of variogram analysis. Kriging was referred to as a tool to predict microbial patterns and the scale of microbial studies were also discussed. This review will be helpful for understanding spatial methods and their application in microbial ecology.