Though a founding concept of ecology suggests that the physical environment determines where organisms can survive, modern scientists have suspected there is more to the story of how microbial ...

But different microbes have distinct roles to play, and environmental factors influence activity. Under our feet, in the soil, is a wealth of microbial activity. Just like humans have different ...

Soils store more carbon than the atmosphere and vegetation combined, with soil microorganisms playing the main role. As a result, the global soil carbon cycle—by which carbon enters, moves through, ...

Researchers tracked how plant matter moves through bacteria's metabolism. Microbes respire three times as much carbon dioxide (CO2) from non-sugar carbons from lignin compared to sugar from cellulose.