Skip to Content
Report an accessibility problem

Sustainability News

View Source | June 27, 2013

Microbe soilArizona State University researchers will be featured on the cover of the June 28 edition of Science for their work in studying what most people ignore: dirt.

The international team funded by the National Science Foundation and led by School of Life Sciences professor Ferran Garcia-Pichel found that temperature determines where soil microbes can live and form crusts that prevent erosion and provide energy for surrounding vegetation. Unfortunately, the scientist say that in 50 years, higher temperatures due to climate change may change the abundance of different microbes in colder U.S. deserts with unknown consequences.

"Our study is relevant beyond desert ecology," says Garcia-Pichel. "It exemplifies that microbial distributions and the partitioning of their habitats can be affected by global change, something we’ve long known for plants and animals. This study tells us clearly that we can no longer neglect microbes in our considerations."