Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

Microorganisms, climate change, and the Sustainable Development Goals: progress and challenges

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 21, pages 622–623 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

The forthcoming UN summit marks the halfway point to 2030 and presents an important milestone in global efforts to address various challenges, including those related to climate change and environmental preservation. The UN SDGs include several related to microorganisms and climate change. Microbiology research is key to understanding and mitigating climate change, and in maintaining the health of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems (SDGs 13, 14 and 15).

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Cavicchioli, R. et al. Scientists’ warning to humanity: microorganisms and climate change. Nat. Rev. Microbiol. 17, 569–586 (2019).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Angst, G. et al. Unlocking complex soil systems as carbon sinks: multi-pool management as the key. Nat. Commun. 14, 2967 (2023).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. Taş, N. et al. Landscape topography structures the soil microbiome in arctic polygonal tundra. Nat. Commun. 9, 777 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  4. Sawyer, W. J. et al. Methane emissions and global warming: Mitigation technologies, policy ambitions, and global efforts. MIT Sci. Policy Rev. 3, 73–84 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Jansson, C. et al. Crops for carbon farming. Front. Plant Sci. 12, 636709 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  6. U.S. Department of Energy. Artificial Intelligence for Earth System Predictability (AI4ESP) Workshop, hosted by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER)—Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR). U.S. Department of Energy https://ess.science.energy.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/AI4ESP-Workshop-Report.pdf (2022).

  7. Malik, A. A. et al. Defining trait-based microbial strategies with consequences for soil carbon cycling under climate change. ISME J. 14, 1–9 (2020).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Thompson, L. R. et al. A communal catalogue reveals Earth’s multiscale microbial diversity. Nature 551, 457–463 (2017).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  9. Belser, C. et al. Integrative omics framework for characterization of coral reef ecosystems from the Tara Pacific expedition. Sci. Data 10, 326 (2023).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  10. Labouyrie, M. et al. Patterns in soil microbial diversity across Europe. Nat. Commun. 14, 3311 (2023).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biological Sciences Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA

    Janet K. Jansson

Authors
  1. Janet K. Jansson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Janet K. Jansson.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Additional information

Related links

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: https://sdgs.un.org/goals

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Jansson, J.K. Microorganisms, climate change, and the Sustainable Development Goals: progress and challenges. Nat Rev Microbiol 21, 622–623 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-023-00953-8

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-023-00953-8

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing Microbiology

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Microbiology newsletter — what matters in microbiology research, free to your inbox weekly.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Microbiology