The soil’s early warning system: microbes can predict desertification before plants start to die

Microbial ecology (the study of how tiny microbes interact with each other and their environment) underpins the health of every ecosystem on Earth.

The microbes living in soil recycle nutrients, support plant growth and help ecosystems respond to environmental change.

In this explainer, microbial ecologist Marc Van Goethem tells us why microbes are critical to human life.

They can also provide an early warning if Africa’s drylands are approaching ecological tipping points, offering new ways to monitor and protect vulnerable landscapes.

What is microbial ecology, and why is it an important field of research? Microbial ecology is the study of how microorganisms, like bacteria, fungi and the viruses that infect them, interact with one another and their environment.

Together, microorganisms exert considerable influence on their immediate environment.

Some examples include the breakdown of organic matter to release nutrients into the soil, digesting the food in our guts, and storing carbon dioxide .

Studying microbial ecology is an effort to make sense of these combined biological and chemical processes in nature.

This information can then be used to predict how an environment might respond to future changes or why, for example, crops grow better in one field compared to another.

Microorganisms quietly shape our lives even though they get less recognition than more easily observed animals and plants.

What are soil microbes and why do they matter? Soil microorganisms are very small (micrometres); we can only see them under powerful microscopes.

Their small sizes, however, make their roles in nature even more profound.

In soils, bacteria, fungi and viruses form microbial communities that operate like mini-cities.

We call these communities “microbiomes”.