Communities of microbes that work together release more carbon dioxide than competitive communities, contributing more to climate change.
Communities of microbes that work together release more carbon dioxide than competitive communities, contributing more to climate change.
Despite being small, microbes, and especially bacteria, contribute a lot to the global carbon cycle – the movement of carbon in various forms through nature. Its level in the atmosphere, and so its influence on climate change, is controlled by a series of sources and sinks, such as respiration and photosynthesis respectively.
Now, new research from Imperial College London and University of Exeter scientists has shown that, when warmed, bacterial communities that have matured to co-operate release more carbon dioxide (CO2) than communities that are in competition with each other.
The results are published in Nature Microbiology.
Read more at Imperial College London
