Study underscores the urgent need to protect global tropical wetlands from human impact.
Study underscores the urgent need to protect global tropical wetlands from human impact.
Complex organisms, thousands of times smaller than a grain of sand, can shape massive ecosystems and influence the fate of Earth's climate, according to a new study.
Researchers from Arizona State University, along with their colleagues from the National University of the Peruvian Amazon, have identified an unknown family of microbes uniquely adapted to the waterlogged, low-oxygen conditions of tropical peatlands in Peru’s northwestern Amazonian rainforest.
The new research shows these microbes have a dual role in the carbon cycle and the potential to either moderate or intensify climate change. This process can either stabilize carbon for long-term storage or release it into the atmosphere as greenhouse gases, particularly CO2 and methane.
Read more at Arizona State University
Image: Hinsby Cadillo-Quiroz works in the Amazon rainforest. His research focuses on microorganisms that play a critical role in regulating the release of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases critically affecting the planet's climate. (Credit: Photo courtesy of Hinsby Cadillo-Quiroz)
