Life as humans know it is slowly but surely being altered by the crucial issue of climate change (Tiedje, et al., 2022). Greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O), largely contribute to this problem and are in surplus due to altered biogeochemical cycles. These gases are produced and consumed by the most plentiful organisms on Earth known as microbes (American Society for Microbiology, 2022). Despite their abundance, microorganisms are largely ignored in the discussion of climate change even though they simultaneously are impacted by and impact the climate. This is of particular concern as microbial actions affect the stability of other organisms’ response to climate change (Cavicchioli, et al., 2019).
The term “microbe” is used to describe an organism of microscopic size including bacteria, fungi, viruses, archea, and protists (Tiedje, et al., 2022). They are found in all environments on the planet, including those inhabited by macroscopic organisms and extreme environments where other organisms cannot survive. While it is hard to imagine as they cannot be seen, microbes play a vital role in supporting the biosphere (Cavicchioli, et al., 2019).
The impact global warming and increased soil temperature have on soil microbial communities is vital to investigate. This is because changes to soil microbiome will impact nutrient availability and carbon and nitrogen cycles, raising concerns regarding crop growth and food security (Zhou, et al., 2012). Additionally, temperature and other physical changes to the soil due to climate change still have relatively unknown impacts on the environment as a whole (Andrade-Linares, et al., 2021). However, research shows that climatic changes, such as increased atmospheric concentrations of CO2, nitrogen deposition, and natural disasters, do significantly change the features of microbial communities. These changes to the soil have the potential to change the respiration and denitrification of microbes, ultimately leading to effects on their metabolism, nutrient feedback, and genetic diversity (Tian, et al., 2020). If these changes are not accounted for in future studies, the assessment of major GHGs will be inaccurate, interfering with models and climate mitigation strategies (American Society for Microbiology, 2022).
Changes to the microbial environment have the potential to dramatically change reservoirs that release or take in carbon, known as carbon pools (American Society for Microbiology, 2022). For instance, permafrost, or areas of continuously frozen soil, hold considerable amounts of carbon from residual plants, animals, and microbes (Schuur, et al., 2008). The permafrost has begun to thaw in certain areas as global temperatures shift, freeing up a large carbon pool. The resulting release of stored carbon allows microbes to use the organic matter for enzymatic processes, producing of CH4 and CO2. With this production comes a positive-feedback loop in which climate change thaws permafrost, allowing more CH4 and CO2 to be produced, which exacerbates already increasing temperatures. This feedback loop can be seen in Figure 1. These actions ultimately increase carbon levels in the atmosphere (American Society for Microbiology, 2022).
While microorganisms can increase the rate of climate change, they could also be utilized to improve our climate models and enhance effective mitigation. In addition, enhanced microbial biotechnology can be used to improve the sustainability of agriculture, energy production and pollution. Nevertheless, more research is needed to develop these methods (Cavicchioli, et al., 2019).
Microorganisms can affect the climate, and in turn, the climate can affect them, thus they are a vital aspect of examining global warming and climate mitigation. However, there is much to be learned about their complex relationship in order to better interpret and predict trends to combat global warming.
References
American Society for Microbiology, 2022. Microbes and Climate Change – Science, People & Impacts. [e-journal] American Society for Microbiology. https://doi.org/10.1128/AAMCol.Nov.2021.
Andrade-Linares, D.R., Zistl-Schlingmann, M., Foesel, B., Dannenmann, M., Schulz, S. and Schloter, M., 2021. Short term effects of climate change and intensification of management on the abundance of microbes driving nitrogen turnover in montane grassland soils. Science of The Total Environment, 780, p.146672. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146672.
Cavicchioli, R., Ripple, W.J., Timmis, K.N., Azam, F., Bakken, L.R., Baylis, M., Behrenfeld, M.J., Boetius, A., Boyd, P.W., Classen, A.T., Crowther, T.W., Danovaro, R., Foreman, C.M., Huisman, J., Hutchins, D.A., Jansson, J.K., Karl, D.M., Koskella, B., Mark Welch, D.B., Martiny, J.B.H., Moran, M.A., Orphan, V.J., Reay, D.S., Remais, J.V., Rich, V.I., Singh, B.K., Stein, L.Y., Stewart, F.J., Sullivan, M.B., van Oppen, M.J.H., Weaver, S.C., Webb, E.A. and Webster, N.S., 2019. Scientists’ warning to humanity: microorganisms and climate change. Nature Reviews Microbiology, 17(9), pp.569–586. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-019-0222-5.
Schuur, E.A.G., Bockheim, J., Canadell, J.G., Euskirchen, E., Field, C.B., Goryachkin, S.V., Hagemann, S., Kuhry, P., Lafleur, P.M., Lee, H., Mazhitova, G., Nelson, F.E., Rinke, A., Romanovsky, V.E., Shiklomanov, N., Tarnocai, C., Venevsky, S., Vogel, J.G. and Zimov, S.A., 2008. Vulnerability of Permafrost Carbon to Climate Change: Implications for the Global Carbon Cycle. BioScience, 58(8), pp.701–714. https://doi.org/10.1641/B580807.
Tian, H., Xu, R., Canadell, J.G., Thompson, R.L., Winiwarter, W., Suntharalingam, P., Davidson, E.A., Ciais, P., Jackson, R.B., Janssens-Maenhout, G., Prather, M.J., Regnier, P., Pan, N., Pan, S., Peters, G.P., Shi, H., Tubiello, F.N., Zaehle, S., Zhou, F., Arneth, A., Battaglia, G., Berthet, S., Bopp, L., Bouwman, A.F., Buitenhuis, E.T., Chang, J., Chipperfield, M.P., Dangal, S.R.S., Dlugokencky, E., Elkins, J.W., Eyre, B.D., Fu, B., Hall, B., Ito, A., Joos, F., Krummel, P.B., Landolfi, A., Laruelle, G.G., Lauerwald, R., Li, W., Lienert, S., Maavara, T., MacLeod, M., Millet, D.B., Olin, S., Patra, P.K., Prinn, R.G., Raymond, P.A., Ruiz, D.J., van der Werf, G.R., Vuichard, N., Wang, J., Weiss, R.F., Wells, K.C., Wilson, C., Yang, J. and Yao, Y., 2020. A comprehensive quantification of global nitrous oxide sources and sinks. Nature, 586(7828), pp.248–256. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2780-0.
Tiedje, J.M., Bruns, M.A., Casadevall, A., Criddle, C.S., Eloe-Fadrosh, E., Karl, D.M., Nguyen, N.K. and Zhou, J., 2022. Microbes and Climate Change: a Research Prospectus for the Future. mBio, 13(3), pp.e00800-22. https://doi.org/10.1128/mbio.00800-22.
WWF Arctic Programme, 2022. Putting a lid on methane emissions — before it’s too late. [e-journal] WWF Arctic. Available at: <https://www.arcticwwf.org/newsroom/features/putting-a-lid-on-methane-emissions-before-its-too-late/> [Accessed 23 November 2022].
Xue, K., M. Yuan, M., J. Shi, Z., Qin, Y., Deng, Y., Cheng, L., Wu, L., He, Z., Van Nostrand, J.D., Bracho, R., Natali, S., Schuur, E.A.G., Luo, C., Konstantinidis, K.T., Wang, Q., Cole, J.R., Tiedje, J.M., Luo, Y. and Zhou, J., 2016. Tundra soil carbon is vulnerable to rapid microbial decomposition under climate warming. Nature Climate Change, 6(6), pp.595–600. https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2940.
Zhou, J., Xue, K., Xie, J., Deng, Y., Wu, L., Cheng, X., Fei, S., Deng, S., He, Z., Van Nostrand, J.D. and Luo, Y., 2012. Microbial mediation of carbon-cycle feedbacks to climate warming. Nature Climate Change, 2(2), pp.106–110. https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1331.
Comments
17 Responses to “The Microscopic Elephant in the Room”
Hello iSci! During my climate change research, I came across some articles about microbes and the environment and thought the topic was interesting. Additionally, it related to concepts we learned in climate change and biogeochemical cycles back in first year. I did my blog post on this topic to provide a glimpse into how complicated the Earth’s climatic processes are and demonstrate some things we know so far about microorganisms and climates relationship. I hope you found it interesting!
Hey Paige,
I really enjoyed your post on microorganisms’ impact on climate change! Here are just a few suggestions to consider:
1. Consider elaborating in your figure caption, and highlighting important aspects of the cycle as they pertain to your post.
2. Be sure to include a comma before et al. in your in-text citations
3. Some of your sentences in your first few paragraphs are a little repetitive such as the justification of studying microbiomes in relation to climate change.
4. I would remove ‘so on and so forth’ from the end of a sentence in your penultimate paragraph, as you previously mention that this is a positive feedback loop, already insinuating its continuation.
5. Be sure to be consistent with subscripts while using molecular formulas in-text (see paragraph 4).
Overall, I really enjoyed your post and can’t wait to read the final product.
Cheers,
Elaina
Hi Elaine,
I have added a longer explanation to my figure caption and edited the sentences you mentioned as suggested.
Thanks for your feedback!
Paige
Hi Paige!
Awesome blog post! You did an excellent job highlighting this facet of climate change that often seems to fly under the radar. Here’s my feedback,
1. In the sentence “Greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, and nitrous oxide (N2O) largely contribute to this problem and are in surplus due to altered biogeochemical cycles.” it seems odd to include the chemical formulae for carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, but not methane. You could include (CH4) for methane to keep it consistent, unless there’s some reason not to.
2. Consider rewording “This is particularly of concern” to “This is of particular concern” – I think it improves flow and is a more typical turn of phrase.
3. Lovely figure! Just remember to italicize your figure caption to distinguish it from body text.
Great work! Jay would be super proud. Best of luck with the last couple weeks of term!
cheers,
maya
Hello Maya!
I have changed my post so methane is mentioned as its chemical formula throughout. I have also reworded the sentence you mentioned and italicized my figure caption.
Thank you for your excellent feedback,
Paige
Hello Paige!
I absolutely loved your blog post, I didn’t know anything about the applications of microbes on climate change so I found this very interesting. Below are some suggestions I had for it:
1. P1S4: I found your sentence a bit repetitive, possibly consider changing it from “even though they affect the climate, and the climate affects them” to something along the lines of “even though they simultaneously are impacted by and impact the climate” to cut out repetition.
2. P3S2: I think you might be missing a comma after ‘cycle’ and before ‘raising’.
3. P5S1: There’s an extra space before the start of the sentence.
4. Your first reference has a DOI but you put ‘[online]’ after the journal title, this should likely be switched to ‘[e-journal]’. This is also applicable to the rest of your sources with DOIs → https://library.aru.ac.uk/referencing/files/QuickHarvardGuide2019.pdf
Your blog post was extremely well written and I’m looking forward to seeing the final draft!
Happy editing,
– Allison
Hello Allison,
I have implemented the suggestions you made for some of my sentences and fixed all of my citations.
Thank you for your feedback, I really appreciate it!
Paige
Hi Paige!
Super interesting and well written blog post–I especially liked your figure and your discussion about microbes and permafrost.
I have a few editing suggestions:
-Consider switching “Causing the production” to “producing” in sentence 4 of paragraph 4.
-In your concluding paragraph, there should not be any citations, as conclusions should not introduce new information.
-In paragraph 4, you state carbon dioxide as C02 instead of CO₂.
-In the first paragraph, there should be a comma after “(N₂O)”.
-Consider replacing “microbe’s” with “microbial” in the first paragraph.
Overall, great post! I look forward to reading your final draft.
Happy editing!
Alec
Hi Alec,
I have fixed sentence errors and structure as you suggested and rewritten my concluding paragraph so it does not include any citations.
Thank you for your input!
Paige
Hello Paige,
Your blog post is amazing! I really enjoyed reading it. I particularly love your title, I think it is super clever. I also think the diagram you included was very helpful to visualize the positive feedback loop. I have a couple of suggestions that I believe could make your post even better:
1. It is completely up to you, but I would suggest slightly altering your 3rd sentence in your first paragraph. By including the semicolon and having the resource directly after, it interrupts the flow of your sentence. I would suggest saying “…consumed by the most plentiful organisms on Earth known as microbes (American Society for Microbiology, 2022)”.
2. Although both forms are technically correct, the spelling of “ cannot” is usually preferred over “can not”. You used both forms in your blog post, so I would suggest keeping it consistent. I would suggest changing your “can not” to “cannot” in your second paragraph, second sentence.
3. Additionally, I would suggest bolding “Figure 1” in your figure caption to improve your format.
4. In your fourth paragraph, you use the form “C02”. I believe you accidentally used a zero instead of an ‘O’ and forgot to make the ‘2’ a subscript. I would suggest altering this to keep your format consistent.
5. Also, I believe there is an extra space in front of your last paragraph. I would suggest omitting it so all of your paragraphs line up.
6. Finally, I would suggest making your last two sentences of your final paragraph its own paragraph as I believe it is a bit separate from the rest of the ideas. As you are summarizing your ideas in this section, I would suggest making it your conclusion.
Overall, I think your blog post is fantastic. I hope some of my comments are helpful in the editing process. Good luck editing, I cannot wait to read the final product!
Kind regards,
Julia Rayner-Beben
Hey Julia!
I have implemented your first two suggestions and changed my conclusion as I agree that these fixes improve the post. I have italicized my figure caption and fixed the errors in the sentences you mentioned.
Thank you for your helpful feedback,
Paige
Hi Paige, interesting blog post! Here are a few minor suggestions you might want to consider:
– In the fifth sentence of your fourth paragraph, you use a 0 instead of an O in CO2.
– In the second sentence of your first paragraph, if you plan on writing greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide with their acronyms, then you should also write CH4 beside methane in brackets too.
– Remove the extra space from the start of your fourth paragraph.
– Typically you don’t have citations in your conclusion. I suggest you remove the fact and replace it with a short summary of all your key points.
– In terms of grammar, add a comma before “and genetic diversity” in the fifth sentence of your third paragraph. To avoid starting a sentence with “with” twice in a row, I also suggest adding a transition word at the start of your third paragraph.
Overall, great work! I really like your writing, it’s very clear and concise. Happy editing and I look forward to reading your final draft!
Hi Sayna,
I have edited the sentences you mentioned, as suggested and reformatted my conclusion.
Thanks for the suggestions!
Paige
Hi Paige
I loved reading this post! It was super informative and very engaging.
I just have a few (nit-picky) things that will hopefully make your editing process a bit easier:
– In the second paragraph, I would recommend rewording to something along the lines of: “The term “microbe” is used to describe an organism of microscopic size including bacteria, fungi, viruses archea and protists.” This would help with flow and ease your reader in to the next paragraph.
– In the last sentence of the same paragraph, very nit-picky, but I would recommend re-wording to something like: microbes play a vital role in supporting the biosphere” What you have written is grammatically correct, but I had to read it a couple times and was on the fence over whether or not there should be an s on the end of support as they play multiple roles.
– As a few other people mentioned, if you are going to give the formulas for the other GHGs, I would recommend including methane’s as well.
Looking forward to reading the final product, hope these helped!
Amanda
Hey Amanda!
I have altered the sentences you mentioned and made sure I used the chemical formula for methane throughout the post.
Thanks for your edits!
Paige
Hey Paige!
Thank you for what was both a clearly well-written and overall enthralling read! I particularly love your title as it is a clever/fun. I have just a few suggestions for you to consider due to how well written it is already and you having reviewed many comments!
1. I would support the inclusion of a second figure to bolster the communication of some of the more complex areas and/or provide emphasis on a section in particular. Perhaps some empirical figure on emissions released or a diagram of the microbe environment.
2. Your conclusion is good but could be improved by including one more sentence after: “However, there is much to be learned about their complex relationship in order to better interpret and predict trends”, in which you elaborate upon why interpreting and predicting these trends are important (even if is just to say “combat global warming”)
3. I would reword “which exacerbates temperature increases” to something along the lines of “which contributes to rising temperatures” or “exacerbates already increasing temperatures”
Thanks again for the great read! This is genuinely a great post 🙂
Cheers,
Joe
Hey Joe!
I could not find another figure that was appropriate/enhanced the post. I have also altered the two sentences you talked about, taking into account your suggestions.
Thanks for the feedback,
Paige