Protecting the Invisible
The International Union for Conservation of Nature has hundreds of scientists that have joined together to save a group of species from extinction, a group that might not seem like it needs saving: microbes.
While animals and plants represent only a fraction of the biological diversity on the planet, microbial species are under threat. Soil may contain half of all microbial species, for instance, but as forests are cut down and grasslands are converted to farm fields, much of that soil living system is destroyed and some of its diversity of microbes is lost.
Preserving microbes in various habitats could also enable them to provide us with their own services. Deserts and arid lands are topped with fragile microbial crusts that pull carbon dioxide out of the air, for example. The more microbes that can be saved, the more work they can do to slow climate change.
On farmland saving microbial diversity could benefit farmers. To spur the growth of their crops, farmers often apply nitrogen-rich fertilizers. But recent studies have shown that farmers can inoculate their fields with soil bacteria that draw nitrogen from the air and provide it to the crops, saving farmers billions of dollars.
Climate change is specifically impacting fungi which constitute their own kingdom, distinct from animals and plants. Over 50 fungi species are at risk of extinction due to changes in fire patterns in the US, which have drastically changed forests.
While fungi mainly live hidden underground disruption to their environment impacts the life above-ground that depends on them. They underpin all ecosystems; most plants partner with fungi to take in nutrients, and therefore cannot exist without them, and they make decomposition possible. As we lose fungi, their ecosystem services are depleted as are the resilience they provide, from drought and pathogen resistance to storing carbon in the soil to bioremediation efforts to clean contaminated sites.
Microbes are ancient life forms that have both adapted and persisted to provide essential services.
