News
Our future climate depends partly on soil microbes - but how are they affected by climate change?
The answer is surprising: increased temperature decreases the rate at which soil microbes respire CO2 — but only in the summer. During the rest of the year, microbial activity remains largely historically consistent. But there’s a catch to this seemingly happy story.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate science
State of Play
What began as a theory in the 1890s — that industrial emissions of carbon dioxide could increase global temperatures — had progressed to a scientific fact a century later. Scientists across a range of disciplines are studying the impact of the still-growing concentration of carbon dioxide and other so-called “greenhouse gases” in the atmosphere as they call for industrial and governmental policies to slow, then halt, the warming of the planet.