Scientists' warning to humanity: microorganisms and climate change
- Creators
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Cavicchioli, Ricardo
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Orphan, Victoria J.
Abstract
In the Anthropocene, in which we now live, climate change is impacting most life on Earth. Microorganisms support the existence of all higher trophic life forms. To understand how humans and other life forms on Earth (including those we are yet to discover) can withstand anthropogenic climate change, it is vital to incorporate knowledge of the microbial 'unseen majority'. We must learn not just how microorganisms affect climate change (including production and consumption of greenhouse gases) but also how they will be affected by climate change and other human activities. This Consensus Statement documents the central role and global importance of microorganisms in climate change biology. It also puts humanity on notice that the impact of climate change will depend heavily on responses of microorganisms, which are essential for achieving an environmentally sustainable future.
Additional Information
© 2019 The Author(s). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Accepted 22 May 2019; Published 18 June 2019. R.C. is indebted to T. Kolesnikow, K. Cavicchioli and X. Kolesnikow for assistance with figures and insightful comments on manuscript drafts. R.C.'s contribution was supported by the Australian Research Council. M.J.B.'s contribution was supported by the NASA North Atlantic Aerosol and Marine Ecosystem Study. Research by J.K.J was supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Biological and Environmental Research, Soil Microbiome Scientific Focus Area 'Phenotypic Response of the Soil Microbiome to Environmental Perturbations' at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, under contract DE-AC05-76RLO 1830. M.B.S.'s contribution was supported by funds from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (#3790) and National Science Foundation (OCE#1829831). V.I.R.'s contribution was supported by funds from the Department of Energy Genomic Sciences Program (#DE-SC0016440) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Interdisciplinary Research in Earth Science programme (#NNX17AK10G). Author Contributions: R.C., W.J.R. and K.N.T. conceived the article, R.C. wrote the article and all authors contributed to discussion of the content and reviewed or edited the manuscript before submission. The authors declare no competing interests.Attached Files
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Additional details
- PMCID
- PMC7136171
- Eprint ID
- 96656
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20190624-093344374
- Australian Research Council
- NNX17AK10G
- NASA
- DE-AC05-76RLO1830
- Department of Energy (DOE)
- 3790
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
- OCE-1829831
- NSF
- DE-SC0016440
- Department of Energy (DOE)
- Created
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2019-06-24Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-16Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences