\u201cThe scientific community is really trying to unlock ways to better project the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and investigating how diversely\u00a0microbes use carbon and other nutrients is one key we\u2019re testing,\u201d Hungate said.<\/p>\n
To understand a range of ecosystem responses, the team will conduct field and laboratory experiments at established long-term warming sites in four different climatic zones: arctic (Toolik Lake in Alaska), boreal (SPRUCE forest in Minnesota), temperate (Merriam-Powell Climate Change Experiment in Arizona) and tropical (Luquillo Experimental Forest in Puerto Rico). These sites contain soil plots that have been warmed above ambient temperature at different levels for intervals between five and 20 years.<\/p>\n
Working with soils from these sites, the team will use techniques including NanoSIMS, quantitative stable isotope probing (qSIP) and Chip-SIP to measure bacterial growth rates, community RNA enrichment and carbon and nitrogen uptake at the level of the cell. These high-resolution methods help illumine the ways a microbe\u2019s evolutionary path influences its response to environmental changes like warming.<\/p>\n
Despite the great diversity of bacteria, viruses and other organisms that live in soil, they have, until recently, been sorted and studied into rougher categories using simpler markers. This limited what microbial ecologists could tell about the varied life contained in a gram of soil\u2014somewhat like guessing the contents of a letter when you can only see the postmark and stamp.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know\u00a0that\u00a0different plant species use soil\u00a0nutrients is vastly different ways, and, using genomics, we\u2019re seeing that\u2019s true in the microbial realm, too,\u201d Hungate said. \u201cBetter understanding how microbes\u2019 genes influence and respond to a warming environment will help us fill in and update what is a rapidly changing global carbon picture. In that way, these experiments act as\u00a0a periscope: they help us see farther into the future of our planet.\u201d<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s a planet experiencing acute climate stress. As wildfires wrack Australia, the world\u2019s oceans are the warmest in recorded history and atmospheric carbon dioxide reached a new high this week\u2014415.79 parts per million recorded on Jan. 21\u2014what is the role of long-term studies like these?<\/p>\n
\u201cTo predict the interactions and ramifications of the multiple threats we face\u2014warming, limited water, too much and too little of soil nutrients\u2014we need long-term studies that allow us to monitor unforeseen ecosystem adaptations,\u201d said Jennifer Pett-Ridge, a collaborator and lead investigator at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. \u201cBut if we fool ourselves into waiting to act on climate change until our projects are completed, we will remain hopelessly behind the curve, as ecosystem adaptations outpace our ability to measure and comprehend.\u201d<\/p>\n
Photo illustration by Victor O. Leshyk<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kate Petersen | Center for Ecosystem Science and Society![\"Northern](\"http:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wordpresst\/uploads\/sites\/153\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/NAU_primary-281_3514-300x213.png\")
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\n(928) 523-2982 | kate.petersen@nau.edu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"