Priorities, opportunities, and challenges for integrating microorganisms into Earth system models for climate change prediction.
J T Lennon, R Z Abramoff, S D Allison, R M Burckhardt, K M DeAngelis, J P Dunne, S D Frey, P Friedlingstein, C V Hawkes, B A Hungate, S Khurana, S N Kivlin, N M Levine, S Manzoni, A C Martiny, J B H Martiny, N K Nguyen, M Rawat, D Talmy, K Todd-Brown, M Vogt, W R Wieder, E J Zakem
Author Information
J T Lennon: Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA. ORCID
R Z Abramoff: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA.
S D Allison: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California, USA.
R M Burckhardt: American Society for Microbiology, Washington, DC, USA. ORCID
K M DeAngelis: Department of Microbiology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA.
J P Dunne: NOAA/OAR Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey, USA.
S D Frey: Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, USA.
P Friedlingstein: College of Engineering, Mathematics, and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom.
C V Hawkes: Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.
B A Hungate: Department of Biological Sciences, Center for Ecosystem Science, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA. ORCID
S Khurana: Department of Physical Geography, Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
S N Kivlin: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA.
N M Levine: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA.
S Manzoni: Department of Physical Geography, Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
A C Martiny: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California, USA. ORCID
J B H Martiny: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California, USA. ORCID
N K Nguyen: American Society for Microbiology, Washington, DC, USA.
M Rawat: National Science Foundation, Washington, DC, USA.
D Talmy: Department of Microbiology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA.
K Todd-Brown: Department of Environmental Engineering Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA.
M Vogt: Institute for Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics, ETH Z��rich, Z��rich, Switzerland.
W R Wieder: National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA.
E J Zakem: Department of Global Ecology, Carnegie Institution for Science, Stanford, California, USA.
Climate change jeopardizes human health, global biodiversity, and sustainability of the biosphere. To make reliable predictions about climate change, scientists use Earth system models (ESMs) that integrate physical, chemical, and biological processes occurring on land, the oceans, and the atmosphere. Although critical for catalyzing coupled biogeochemical processes, microorganisms have traditionally been left out of ESMs. Here, we generate a "top 10" list of priorities, opportunities, and challenges for the explicit integration of microorganisms into ESMs. We discuss the need for coarse-graining microbial information into functionally relevant categories, as well as the capacity for microorganisms to rapidly evolve in response to climate-change drivers. Microbiologists are uniquely positioned to collect novel and valuable information necessary for next-generation ESMs, but this requires data harmonization and transdisciplinary collaboration to effectively guide adaptation strategies and mitigation policy.
