Microbes Key to Sequestering Carbon In Soil
Published:28 Jun.2023 Source:Cornell University
The research is the first to measure the relative importance of microbial processes in the soil carbon cycle. The study's authors found that the role microbes play in storing carbon in the soil is at least four times more important than any other process, including decomposition of biomatter.
That's important information: Earth's soils hold three times more carbon than the atmosphere, creating a vital carbon sink in the fight against climate change.
The study, "Microbial Carbon Use Efficiency Promotes Global Soil Carbon Storage," published May 24 in Nature, describes a novel approach to better understanding soil carbon dynamics by combining a microbial computer model with data assimilation and machine learning, to analyze big data related to the carbon cycle.
The method measured microbial carbon use efficiency, which tells how much carbon was used by microbes for growth versus how much was used for metabolism. When used for growth, carbon becomes sequestered by microbes in cells and ultimately in the soil, and when used for metabolism, carbon is released as a side product in the air as carbon dioxide, where it acts as a greenhouse gas. Ultimately, growth of microbes is more important than metabolism in determining how much carbon is stored in the soil.