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Global change microbiology — big questions about small life for our future

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 17, pages 331–332 (2019)Cite this article

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Planet Earth, our blue-green spaceship, is under anthropogenic pressure, causing long-lasting or even irreversible changes to its passengers and their habitats. Given the emerging knowledge of how single-cell life shapes all multicellular life and Earth as a whole, it is important to consider the microbial roles in the future path of our spaceship. Global change microbiology is a rapidly growing research field on microbial responses to global warming, overuse and pollution and on feedback mechanisms and functions that affect Earth’s element cycles and planetary health. This field will provide essential knowledge for navigating our spaceship into a sustainable future.

The story of the evolution of life on Earth and its biogeochemical functions is foremost a story of unicellular life, rising before 3.8 billion years ago, and shaping Earth ever since. The core functions of microorganisms, including hydrogen oxidation and production, CO2 and N2 fixation, methanogenesis and methanotrophy, photosynthesis and more, enable them to support complex ecosystems sustainably using sunlight, water, air and minerals. These ingenious core functions are enabled by a set of ancient enzymes with genetic codes1 that have survived major catastrophic events during Earth’s history, including giant meteorite impacts, extreme hot and icy eras of Earth, the rise of oxygen and the global colonization of land and water by plant and animal life. The replication and survival of the microbial core gene set is supported by a huge, yet unknown, diversity of host systems that provide for the adaptation to environmental dynamics, comprising potentially a billion taxa2. Recent global changes suggest that Earth has now entered another distinct geological era, the Anthropocene3. This term stands for the profound impact of humans on the Earth, including the atmosphere, oceans and land. A favourable climate over 12,000 years and technologies based on cheaply available natural energy resources such as wood, coal, oil and gas have allowed the human population to grow exponentially and non-sustainably. But, if we do not change our current path, human activities will result in major possible catastrophic transformations of Earth, its climate, nature and human society4.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Center for Marine and Polar Research, Bremerhaven, Germany

    Antje Boetius

  2. Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Bremen, Germany

    Antje Boetius

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  1. Antje Boetius
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Correspondence to Antje Boetius.

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Boetius, A. Global change microbiology — big questions about small life for our future. Nat Rev Microbiol 17, 331–332 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-019-0197-2

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