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[Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>]

First Global Atlas of Soil Bacteria | Technology Networks
https://www.technologynetworks.com/tn/news/first-global-atlas-of-soil-bacteria-296526

What lives in your dirt? CU Boulder researchers are one step closer to
finding out after compiling the first global atlas of soil bacterial
communities and identifying a group of around 500 key species that are both
common and abundant worldwide.

The new study, which appears today in the journal Science, narrows down the
immense diversity of soil-dwelling bacteria to a “most wanted” list that
will guide future research into the study and manipulation of
microorganisms that affect nutrient cycling, soil fertility and other
important ecological functions.


“With this research, we have started to open the black box and are gaining
a better understanding of what microbes are living in our soils,” said
Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo, lead author of the study and a postdoctoral
researcher at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental
Sciences (CIRES) at CU Boulder.


Soil bacteria account for a large percentage of the planet’s living biomass
and facilitate key soil processes such as carbon cycling and nutrient
availability. But despite being studied for decades, the microorganisms
living in soil—even in the soil from an average North American backyard—are
still poorly understood due to a species count numbering in the tens of
thousands. Most species remain undescribed—they do not match existing
genomic records and have not been successfully cultured in a lab.


“It is amazing how much we still don’t know about even the most dominant
microorganisms found in soil,” said Noah Fierer, a CIRES Fellow and a
co-author of the new research. “Many of them don’t even have names yet.”


To conduct the study, the researchers collected soil samples from 237
different locations across six continents and 18 countries, spanning an
entire range of climates from deserts to grasslands to wetlands. Then, they
used DNA sequencing to identify the types of bacteria found at each site
and determine which species are shared across different types of soil.


The researchers found that just two percent of all bacterial taxa—or around
500 individual species—consistently accounted for almost half of the soil
bacterial communities worldwide.


Having been identified as both dominant and ubiquitous, these predictably
common bacteria can now be targeted for future study.


“Now that we have this list, we can really focus our research efforts to
categorize these major groups and see where they are and what they do,”
said Fierer, who is also an associate professor in CU Boulder’s Department
of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EBIO).


Continued research into the identity and function of soil bacteria could
potentially lead to agricultural applications in the future.


“Eventually, knowing more about these bacteria might allow us to improve
soil health and fertility,” said Delgado-Baquerizo, who carries a dual
affiliation with the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid, Spain. “There’s
a lot that we can do now that we have some tractable information.”

This article has been republished from materials
<https://www.colorado.edu/today/2018/01/18/what-lives-your-dirt> provided
by University of Colorado Boulder <https://www.colorado.edu>. Note:
material may have been edited for length and content. For further
information, please contact the cited source.

*Reference*
A global atlas of the dominant bacteria found in soil. Manuel
Delgado-Baquerizo, Angela M. Oliverio, Tess E. Brewer, Alberto
Benavent-González, David J. Eldridge, Richard D. Bardgett, Fernando T.
Maestre, Brajesh K. Singh, Noah Fierer. Science  19 Jan 2018:Vol. 359,
Issue 6373, pp. 320-325 DOI:10.1126/science.aap9516.