The mighty microbe

Buried at the bottom of JSOnline.com (was it that way in the paper also?)

While scientists have determined that humans probably are warming the world, it’s Earth’s microscopic inhabitants that may have even bigger climate clout.

It’s the increased breathing of these innumerable organisms as Earth warms that worries scientists.These bacteria live in the soil, which stores an enormous amount of carbon, according to Christopher Kucharik, an associate scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment.

“Globally, soils store twice as much carbon as the atmosphere does. It’s a pretty huge storage tank to be messing around with,” he said.

Interesting.

Tags: climate change, Environment