Microbes are critical for ecosystem health and essential to large-scale environmental processes such as carbon cycling. As such, it is important to understand their basic yet complex traits and how they respond to changing conditions and extremes for better understanding of ecosystem functioning.

CESD scientists are studying how the response of soil microbes to warming can impact environmental change and investigating how microbes govern the cycling of water, nitrogen, carbon, and other watershed components. They are developing a model of the impact microbial communities have on ecosystems under various scenarios, and researching how microbes living on plant roots could support sustainable bio-energy. 

With more detailed and accurate knowledge of microbial traits and functioning, our scientists can advance the fundamental understanding of microbial metabolic potential coupled with ecological and biogeochemical processes across Earth’s systems.