Abstract

Anthropogenic development activities have resulted in rapid global climate change. The effects of increasing surface temperatures are evident from unprecedented loss in plant and animal species. However, microbial life has not been well discussed in context of climate change. The present review has been done to understand the basic processes that soil microbial communities carry out in context of climate change such as microbial mediated soil carbon sequestration and mitigation of greenhouse gases. Soil microbes play a crucial role in decomposition of organic matter and soil respiration processes that are fundamental in sequestering carbon in the soil and CO2 emissions from the soil. The emissions of other important greenhouse gases such as methane and nitrous oxide are also mitigated by microbial actions. The mitigation of methane is brought about by its oxidation by methanotrophic bacteria while that of nitrous oxide is achieved by manipulating soil microbiome in situ along with manipulation in biotic and abiotic factors in soil. Hence, an understanding of the role of soil microbes as both contributors to and reactive components of climate change is much needed to clarify their roles whether they can be used to mitigate the emissions of GHGs or accelerators of climate disaster at the macroscopic level and even at the global scale.

Keywords: Soil microbes; Carbon sequestration; Climate change; Mitigation; Greenhouse gases; Carbon dioxide; Methane; Nitrous oxide