Lazy microbes are key for soil carbon and nitrogen sequestration
The world's soils store on the order of 2500 gigatons of carbon, which is three times the amount in the atmosphere (or equivalent to 9170 gigatons of CO2). Yet the mechanisms behind this storage are not completely understood. A new study, published in the journal Nature Communications, shows that lazy, or 'cheater' microbes, which rely on those around them to make enzymes for digesting plant material lead to the build-up of organic material in soil by regulating the rate of decomposition and increasing the amount of microbial remains in the soil. The study thereby introduces a new possible control mechanism—enabled by social interactions among individual microbes—that may help to explain the massive reservoir of carbon and other nutrients in soil.