Microbially mediated climate feedbacks from wetland ecosystems.

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Microbiology
• Climate Science

Background:

• Wetlands are critical for the global carbon cycle, influencing methane (CH4) emissions and soil carbon sequestration.
• Microbial communities in wetland soils drive greenhouse gas fluxes and carbon storage.
• Current global climate models often oversimplify or omit the role of these microbial communities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To integrate microbial metabolisms with ecosystem processes for a scale-bridging framework.
• To develop feedback loops illustrating climate impacts on wetland microbial processes and future climate trajectories.
• To identify knowledge gaps and propose a roadmap for improving microbial process representation in climate models.

Main Methods:

• Conceptual framework integrating microbial metabolisms with biological, chemical, and physical processes across scales.
• Development of feedback loops linking wetland-specific climate impacts to climate trajectories.
• Interdisciplinary roadmap connecting environmental science fields.

Main Results:

• A scale-bridging framework was developed to connect microbial functions to ecosystem-level processes.
• Feedback loops were conceptualized to show how climate change affects wetlands and vice-versa.
• Key knowledge gaps were identified for improving climate models.

Conclusions:

• Microbial communities in wetlands play a crucial, yet underrepresented, role in climate regulation.
• Accurate climate modeling requires integrating microbially mediated feedbacks from wetlands.
• An interdisciplinary approach is necessary to address knowledge gaps and enhance predictive climate models.