Future climate models greatly affected by fungi and bacteria
http://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/future-climate-models-greatly-affected-by-fungi-and-bacteria[font face=Serif][font size=5]Future climate models greatly affected by fungi and bacteria[/font]
Published: 28/08/2015
[font size=4]Researchers from Lund University, Sweden, and USA have shown that our understanding of how organic material is decomposed by fungi and bacteria is fundamentally wrong. This means that climate models that include microorganisms to estimate future climate change must be reconsidered.[/font]
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In contrast with expectations, there was no evidence that high quality organic material was mainly broken down by bacteria. In fact, the data strongly suggested the contrary, says Johannes Rousk, researcher in Microbial Ecology at Lund University in Sweden.
There was also no evidence to suggest that organic material broken down by fungi reduced the leakage of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, or the leakage of nutrients. Once again, the results tended to suggest the contrary, says Johannes Rousk.
The results could have consequences not only for future climate models, but may also impact current policies on land use intended to promote fungi. This may be based on flawed assumptions regarding the fungal role in reducing negative environmental effects.[/font][/font]