Phenyl urea herbicides are among the most widely used herbicides in agriculture, resulting in important contamination of both surface water and groundwater. Recently, several multimember microbial communities mineralizing phenyl urea herbicides like linuron, diuron and isoproturon have been isolated from long-term treated agricultural soils indicating that bacteria adapted to the contamination. The disposal of solid surfaces in the soil environment might play an essential role in the stability and metabolic activity of such communities as they would serva as a support for community formation and functioning allowing stable cell to cell contact for high-efficiency metabolic fluxes between cells. In addition, they might affect the micro-environment of the community by influencing the local nutrient availability and polluent concentration. Finally, surfaces and biofilms might serve as sites for transfer of genetic material. ....