Study helps clarify role of soil microbes in global warming
A new study by a team of scientists, including a Colorado State University researcher, shows that while the rate of decomposition increases for a brief period in response to warmer temperatures, elevated levels of decomposition don't persist.
"It is often said that in a handful of dirt, there are somewhere around 10,000 species and millions of individual bacteria and fungi," said study co-author Matthew Wallenstein, a research scientist at Colorado State University's Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory. "Our findings add to the understanding of how complex these systems are and the role they play in feedbacks associated with climate change."
External Link (Today@Colorado State)