Climate Change is Putting World’s Microbiomes at Risk?
Researchers are only beginning to understand the complexities of the microbes in the earth’s soil and the role they play in fostering healthy ecosystems. Now, climate change is threatening to disrupt these microbes and the key functions they provide.
The spores of an opportunistic soil fungus, Penicillium sp. View gallery. Photo: PNNL
In 1994, scientists at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory moved soil from moist, high-altitude sites to warmer and drier places lower in altitude, and vice versa. In 2011, they returned to the sites and looked again at the soil microbes and found that they had done little to adapt functionally to their new home. That’s a bad sign, experts say, for a world convulsed by a changing climate. Continue reading “Eureka! and Oh Shit! moments as Microbe Science takes off”
The Free 